


broken bonds still bind us

by stonestars



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Meetings, Memory Alteration, Relationships are there but not the focus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 01:09:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17214209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/pseuds/stonestars
Summary: An old enemy gets revenge of a different form.But Vox Machina’s bonds are too strong to be broken.Right?--Or: Hotis comes back early and traps Vox Machina in a dream-like curse. They can face any enemy together, but what happens when they aren't anymore.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic took over my soul in the span of a few days. Find me at nottsbuttons on tumblr. Enjoy!

Vox Machina trudges wearily down the street towards the town’s only inn, earning curious glances from some of the people they pass as they bicker loudly.

 

“What I’m saying,” Vex says, shifting her grip as she supports her brother, “is that we’re pretty much tapped on gold after that.”

 

Keyleth, cheeks burning red, stares at her feet as she walks with help from Percy. “I’m sorry,” she mutters, “I didn’t mean to get us caught.”

 

Vax chuckles, probably a little delirious from the pain of their most recent fight. “Don’t you worry about it, Kiki,” he says, waving a hand towards her. “They were assholes anyway.”

 

Vex rolls her eyes. “Clearly,” she says. She looks over at Scanlan, who is trudging along a little bit in front of them. “Scanlan? Are you sure you don’t have the mansion in you?”

 

Scanlan shakes his head. “Sorry but I’m tapped, baby.”

 

Vex makes a face at the nickname. She sighs heavily. “I suppose we’ll just have to go back to our old days of sharing rooms,” she says.

 

Percy smiles wryly. “I’m sure a little company won’t kill us.”

 

Grog pipes up from where he’s bringing up the rear. “I call sleeping next to my buddy,” he says, looking down at the sleeping Pike in his arms. She was tapped most of all, barely avoiding falling unconscious in battle and expending all of the divine magic she could spare to keep the rest of them up. He pulls her a bit closer to his chest. “And far away from Scanlan.”

 

Scanlan looks scandalized. “What did I do to you to deserve that?” he asks, all over the top offense.

 

“Not to me,” Grog says, looking down at Pike. “I don’ want you near Pike while she’s not herself.”

 

Scanlan’s face twists into offense, but his reply is drowned out by the laughter of their companions as they arrive at the inn and filter inside.

 

Too occupied by each other, none of them-- not even the particularly perceptive Vex-- managed to notice the hooded figure passing them who smiled wryly when they overheard Scanlan say he was tapped.

 

The figure, now, slips into an alleyway and comes to a stop in front of a figure wearing a more intricate cloak.

 

“Vox Machina are in town,” the hooded figure says.

 

Their new companion smiles, revealing a mouth full of sharp, cat-like teeth. “Good.”

 

“I overheard the singing gnome say that he’s tapped. They look rather beat up.”

 

The smile widens. “Even better.”

 

The hooded figure shifts, almost anxiously. “I don’t think doubting them is the best idea, sir. Even tapped they’re a powerful bunch.”

 

The figure in the intricate cloak steps from the shadows, removing his hood. Hotis the rakshasa grins, a glint in his eye, and his form slowly shifts into that of an unassuming half elf wearing standard travelling gear. He puts a hand on his companion’s shoulder. “Trust me,” he says. “I am aware. I know of their strength. Together they are stronger than any foe they have faced.”

 

His companion shifts again, away from Hotis. “Then what…”

 

Hotis pulls back the edge of his cloak, revealing a leather scroll case. “A special spell I had created specifically for this. Vox Machina are stronger than any foe. _Together._ ” Even in the half-elf form, Hotis’s eyes glint with a heavy malice. “So all I have to do is make sure they are not together.”

 

“And how will you do that? I overheard that they‘re sharing a room, even.”

 

The rakshasa smiles. “Come. I’ll show you.”

 

* * *

 

Thanks to Vex’s haggling, they had enough gold for a room, a meal, and two bottles of alcohol. Settled on the floor, leaning against the bed in their room, Vax holds one bottle aloft, the liquid sloshing around inside.

 

“Despite everything,” he says, voice full of grandeur. “We succeeded.”

 

Keyleth, leaning against him, snags the bottle and takes a drink.

 

Halfway across the room, Vex takes the other bottle from Percy with a grin as they both lean against Trinket. “Barely, darling.”

 

“More than barely,” Percy says, looking at Vex with barely concealed fondness. “We succeeded _spectacularly_ , I do believe.”

 

Grog steals Keyleth’s bottle, finishing it off as she gives him an offended look. “‘Course they didn’ stand a chance against us.”

 

“I don’t know about you guys, but I do everything spectacularly,” Scanlan proclaims, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

 

“So we’ve heard,” Percy says.

 

“He’s all talk,” Pike says from where she’s resting on the bed under orders from the rest of them, idly polishing her armor.

 

Scanlan beams. “You offend me, Pikey,” he says, grin not fading. “Although you would know--”

 

Pike tosses the cloth she’d been using at Scanlan’s head, cutting him off. “Scanlan! I would not.”

 

“You only wish Pickle knew,” Vax teases, making Scanlan lob the cloth back at his head as the others laugh. He catches it easily, tossing it up into Grog’s face. Grog doesn’t catch it, but picks it up off his lap and hands it back to Pike.

 

“I know nothing about my friend’s skills in bed,” Pike says as she accepts the cloth back, a twinkle in her eye. “Unlike _some_ of us.”

 

Keyleth and Percy blush. The twins look unbothered, Vex taking a swig of the only remaining bottle with a smirk. Grog laughs loud enough for all of them.

 

Downstairs, a half-elf slides a pile of coins across the counter to the innkeep. “Say,” he says, adding a few extra to the pile. “I believe some of my friends checked in earlier. If I could get a room next to them, I’d be much obliged.”

 

The innkeep looks between the money and the elf before sweeping it off the counter. “Who are your friends?”

 

The half-elf grins. “They’re a large bunch, probably crammed themselves into a single room. A few half-elves, some gnomes, an odd human, big goliath…”

 

* * *

 

Vox Machina falls asleep in a pile on the floor, even Pike abandoning the bed for sleeping on Grog’s chest. Vex and Percy remain curled onto Trinket, Keyleth going Minxy and draping herself across Vax. Scanlan ends up jammed between Trinket and Keyleth at first, but Pike, chuckling softly, has Grog make room for him against his side.

 

Sleep finds all of them with varying levels of ease.

 

In the room next to them, there is no sleep.

 

Instead, Hotis sits, disguise gone, in the middle of the floor, drawing symbols around him as his companion watches nervously.

 

“Are you sure about--”

 

“Hush!” Hotis hisses, glaring.

 

He slowly begins to read from the scroll, magic swirling around him.

 

In the next room, Vox Machina sleeps soundly as faint red magic slips through the cracks in the wooden wall, settling over them like a blanket.

 

* * *

 

Morning comes, and Pike Trickfoot wakes to Father Tristan knocking on her door in one of the back rooms of Emon’s Temple of Sarenrae. She groans a bit as she sits up, a terrible headache greeting her with the morning’s light.

 

“Pike?” Tristan says through the door. “Are you alright? You’re meant to be staffing the temple today.”

 

Pike sits up quickly, going to grab her symbol of Sarenrae from her bedside table before realizing that it’s already around her neck. She must’ve fallen asleep wearing it, she thinks, standing quickly to grab her robes and pull them on. “I’m coming,” she calls, halfway through braiding her hair when she throws the door open. “I’m sorry,” she says breathlessly.

 

Tristan smiles a bit, shaking his head. “It’s alright,” he says, clapping her on the shoulder. “Go on, now, can’t keep our Lady waiting.”

 

Pike dips her head. “Of course,” she says, hurrying off towards the temple.

 

* * *

 

Halfway across the city, Percy sits up abruptly in his bed in the palace to see sunlight already filtering through the window. It takes him a moment to realize that he’s not in his own bed, to remember that as the ambassador from Whitestone to Emon, he’s been staying in the palace while the embassy undergoes some repairs.

 

His eyes fall on one of the palace servants, who is in the middle of setting a breakfast tray on the table in his quarters. For the life of him, he can’t remember her name.

 

She smiles as he sits up. “Lord de Rolo,” she says, dipping her head. “It is rare to see you asleep past dawn.”

 

Percy clears his throat awkwardly. His head hurts something fierce. He wonders if his lack of sleep had finally caught up to him. “Happens to the best of us, I suppose,” he says. He swings his legs over the edge of the bed. “Thank you.”

 

She bows. “Of course.”

 

* * *

 

At the same moment, also within the palace, three more individuals stir awake.

 

The first is Grog Strongjaw, one of the personal bodyguards to the Sovereign Uriel himself. He awakens to pounding on his door to match that in his head.

 

“Strongjaw! Your shift is up,” the voice on the other side of the door barks. Grog jumps out of bed, grabs his axe, and follows the other guard to the throne room without a second thought.

 

The second is Keyleth, a druid who works in the palace gardens. She sits up abruptly from a dream, her breath coming in short bursts from a nightmare she can’t quite remember.

 

With a sigh, she rubs her temple and pushes open the curtains to her room, eyes surveying the view of the gardens she can see from here. A bird lands on the windowsill, but flits away before she can reach out to touch it.

 

Keyleth sighs again and closes the curtains, turning to start getting ready for a day’s work.

 

Scanlan Shorthalt, the third, awakens to hard ground as he tumbles out of bed in the quarters he shares with his daughter, Kaylie. He groans and rubs his now pounding head. Across the room, a soft chuckle makes him look up.

 

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Scanlan groans and throws a pillow at Kaylie.

 

“‘s there a banquet tonight?” he asks, slowly sitting up.

 

Kaylie grins, setting her flute aside from where she’d been cleaning it. “We’re to play for the royal family themselves tonight,” she says. She throws the pillow back at him, crossing the room to help him up.

 

* * *

 

As those in the palace go about their day, and Pike greets people within the temple with a smile, below the city, Vex’ahlia digs her teeth into her lip and balls her hand into Trinket’s fur as her twin steps in front of her.

 

Spireling Shenn sits in front of them, an easy grin on his face at Vax’ildan’s outrage.

 

The twins had started working for the Clasp after their attention had fallen onto Vex. In return for her safety, they’d agreed to become members.

 

Now, Vex wonders if her brother is regretting it as much as she is.

 

“The _Royal family?”_ Vax asks. Vex can see the tension in his shoulders. “That’s suicide!"

 

Shenn waves him off. “Relax,” he says, “the two of you are only… insurance, of sorts. Others will take care of the whole affair. All the two of you need to do is act as our sources within the palace.”

 

Vex bites back another comment. Vax had asked her to be silent, and she’d given him her word. She wouldn’t break it. Yet.

 

“And how are we supposed to do that?”

 

“There’s an ambassador staying in the palace while his embassy is renovated. They need personal servants for him. You--” Shenn points to Vax “--will be one of them.” His attention shifts to Vex. “She will work in the palace gardens.” A wry smile crosses his face. “That way, the bear can come too.”

 

Vex can barely contain herself. Trinket presses against her side as she stares at her brother’s back, willing him to get them out of this.

 

Vax shakes his head. Vex can see the tension in his shoulders. “And then what?”

 

“You will do nothing, for a while. If we need you, we will call on you.”

 

This time, when Vax goes to argue, Vex steps forward and puts a hand on his shoulder. _It’s not worth it,_ she tells him with her eyes. He sighs, but nods imperceptibly. “When do we start?”


	2. Chapter 2

The day passes normally for most of them, with the exception of Vex and Vax, who are busy preparing for their new positions.

 

In adjoining rooms in a small town inn, Vox Machina still sleeps, and Hotis continues to weave his spell, scenes playing out in front of him. His partner watches, intrigued.

 

“You’ve got them trapped, why move them close together?” he asks.

 

Hotis glares, but answers. “Because,” he says, “they don’t know each other. And if I can get them all together, I can get them all executed for the murder of the royal family.” A grin spreads across his face. “And the dream starts all over again.”

 

* * *

 

Morning comes, and Pike wakes first, going about her duties in the palace. Grog wakes next, marching to the Sovereign's side as he always does. Scanlan is shaken awake by Kaylie to go play for some visiting nobles.

 

For them, the day progresses normally.

 

For Percy, Keyleth, Vex, and Vax, however, a bit of change begins.

 

Keyleth is finishing her breakfast when there is a knock on her door, which she opens to find a half elf woman, dark hair in a braid over her shoulder, with a bear peeking out from behind her.

 

She bites back a gasp of surprise and forces her eyes from Trinket to Vex. “Can I… help you?” she asks.

 

“I believe so, d--darling,” she says, flashing a smile. “I’ve been hired to help out in the gardens.” She scratches Trinket’s head. “The head gardener pointed me your way. Said I am to be your assistant.”

 

Keyleth blinks a few times. “O--Oh,” she says, not having heard anything about an assistant. “Well, I could always use some help, I guess. Come in.” She steps to the side. “My name’s Keyleth.”

 

Vex takes one of Keyleth’s hands and shakes. “Vex’ahlia, darling. You can call me Vex. And this is Trinket.”

 

Keyleth looks between them. Her little bit of trepidation fades as she smiles.

 

Neither of them comment on how there’s something _so familiar_ about the other, something that neither of them can place. Instead, they step inside, Keyleth talking rapidly about her duties around the palace.

 

In Percy’s quarters, he finds himself sleeping in for the second day in a row.

 

This time, he wakes up to a hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake.

 

“Good morning, sunshine,” an unfamiliar voice says as Percy sits up, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

 

It takes him a minute to adjust to the light in the room, eyes settling on the half-elf who’d shaken him awake.

 

Vax stands in the center of the room, breakfast tray balanced easily on one hand, an amused smirk on his face.

 

“You’re new,” Percy remarks dryly.

 

Vax sweeps across the room, laying the tray on Percy’s lap. “New staff,” he says. “Hired just for you.”

 

Percy looks down at the breakfast and up at Vax. “And you are?”

 

“Vax’ildan,” he says. “Charmed.”

 

Percy picks up a scone, turning it over in his hands. “Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski--”

 

“--de Rolo III,” Vax finishes for him. “I’ve been made aware. Now, you may want to eat that instead of just looking. You’ve got a meeting to be at in a half an hour.”

 

* * *

 

A week passes in the dream. Outside of the dream, seven hours pass. Hotis’s companion grows anxious, eventually leaving the room with a comment about getting a drink. Hotis bides his time, maintains the magic. Vox Machina sleeps. In their dream-like prison, they go about their daily lives.

 

As the sixth hour comes to a close, Hotis’s companion comes back. Hotis beams. “Just in time,” he says, “you’ll want to see this. Things are just getting started.”

 

* * *

 

On the seventh day, Pike wakes up to Tristan knocking on her door once again. “Pike?” he says. “I need someone to go to the palace and get some herbs from the gardens there. Could you do it?”

 

Pike grabs her holy symbol, dresses quickly, and answers the door with a nod. “Of course,” she says. “I’ll go now.”

 

He hands her a scroll. “This will get you into the Cloudtop District and the palace.” He hands her another. “This is what you’ll need. Thank you.”

 

Pike gives him a grin. “Of course,” she says, tucking the scrolls away.

 

A while later, Pike finds herself on the steps of the palace. She hands the guard the scroll to let her in, and with a smile and a nod she heads off towards the palace gardens.

 

She’s barely halfway there when she spots a woman walking through the flowers, three children in tow. She slows her pace to let them pass, figuring they are of a stature higher than hers. As they pass, she dips her head.

 

They pass, and Pike keeps walking.

 

That is, until she hears one of the children cry out. She turns on her heel to find that she no longer sees the woman.

 

Instead, she can only barely see the head of the tallest child poking over the flowers. A worried frown on her face, she hurries towards them.

 

The woman, she finds, has fallen to the ground. One of the girls has the woman’s head on her lap, the boy shaking her shoulders hard.

 

Pike runs the rest of the way, coming to kneel next to the woman.

 

“What happened?” she asks, looking up at the oldest girl. She looks maybe twelve.

 

The girl’s hands wring the hem of her shirt anxiously. “I don’t know, she just fell over,” she says. “Can you help her?”

 

Pike looks down at the woman and then around at the children. “I’ll do my best,” she says.

 

She closes her eyes and channels divine energy, the magic sliding from her to the woman.

 

It takes her a moment, but she recognizes the poison as it chokes out her magic, preventing it from taking effect.

 

“How the hell did the poison of a pit fiend end up affecting someone here,” she mumbles. She doesn’t have time to think about how she knows what the poison of a pit fiend is. Instead, she looks towards the oldest girl. “I need you to do something for me.”

 

* * *

 

Keyleth and Vex are laughing as they tend to the flowers, Trinket biting after a few of the bees buzzing around the garden.

 

They’re watching him in amusement when the girl runs up to them. Keyleth recognizes her immediately as one of the royal children and straightens quickly. Vex doesn’t, but spots Keyleth’s change in posture and mirrors it.

 

The girl is out of breath. “I need some herbs,” she says. “The blonde lady said.”

 

They exchange looks. “The blonde lady?” Vex asks.

 

The girl looks distressed. “Please,” she says, shoving something into Keyleth’s hand. Keyleth takes the list and looks it over.

  
Herbs, she recognizes, as being cures for poison.

 

She bites her lip. “Vex,” she says. “Quick, go get our harvesting supplies.”

 

Vex hurries off, her stomach twisting. Keyleth puts a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “What happened?”

 

* * *

 

 

Pike is doing her best to keep the woman stable, but she’s fighting a losing battle. She grits her teeth and hopes the girl comes back quickly.

 

And she does. It only takes a few minutes for the girl to run back, a red-headed half-elf and another with her hair in a braid in tow. Pike breathes a sigh of relief. “Do you have them?”

 

“Here,” the Keyleth says, falling to her knees next to Pike.

  
Vex stays back, apprehension building in her stomach. She had known that the Clasp was planning on hurting the royal family in return for something she didn’t quite understand.

 

This, she realizes, is the empress.

 

And right now, the blonde haired gnome and Keyleth are saving her life.

 

And Vex is going to help. She bites her lip and acts clueless.

 

“What do you need, darling?” she asks the gnome.

  
Pike takes the herbs from Keyleth and begins to crush them between her fingers. She fumbles for some diamond dust.

 

It surprises her how easily she and Keyleth fall into work beside each other, but she shakes off the oddness of the feeling and focuses on the task in front of her.

 

She takes a deep breath and works another spell, this time using the herbs and the dust and her knowledge of the poison to dispel it, first, and then channeling more divine magic into her to bring her back to consciousness.

 

Keyleth and Vex watch nervously. The children hover around, eyes never leaving their mother’s face.

 

Her eyes open slowly.

 

“Wha--” she coughs a few times. “What happened?”

 

Pike smiles wide. “You’re alright,” she says gently. “Poison, of some sort. It’s gone now.”

 

The youngest child, the boy, launches himself forward to give her a hug. She laughs softly. “There you are, Gren. I’m okay.”

 

The woman looks up at Pike. “You saved me?”

 

Pike flushes a bit. “With help from these two,” she says, gesturing to Keyleth and Vex.

  
“We didn’t do much, darling,” Vex says.

 

“Vex is right,” Keyleth says. “It was mainly you.”

 

The woman’s eyes settle on Keyleth. “I know you,” she says with a tired smile. “Keyleth, right? You work around the gardens?”

 

Keyleth nods, blushing slightly.

 

Her eyes move to Vex. Vex dips her head. “Vex’ahlia,” she says, “I work with Keyleth.”

 

Finally, her eyes settle on Pike. “And you?”

 

Pike rubs her holy symbol nervously. “Pike Trickfoot,” she says quickly. “I was just passing by, really.”

 

The woman takes Pike’s hand. “Allow me to introduce myself,” she says, “my name is Salda. Salda Tal’Dorei.”

 

Pike stares.

 

_Empress_ Salda Tal’Dorei, she realizes, her stomach twisting. She scrambles back a bit, dipping her head into a bow.

 

“Please,” Salda says, with a wave of her hand. “You just saved my life. We’re past formalities.”

 

* * *

 

 

The next few days pass in a whirlwind for Pike, as it is decided there will be a banquet in her honor at the end of the week. Vex and Keyleth are invited, for their help. Percy is, too, along with Vax, who is to accompany him everywhere. Grog is security for the banquet. Scanlan and Kaylie are to offer entertainment.

 

Outside of the dream, Hotis finally relaxes in the casting of the spell. “Ten hours,” he says when his companion frowns at him, waving a hand vaguely. “Anyway, things are just getting interesting, aren’t they?”

 

His companion stares at the image of Vox Machina’s dream with a level of curiosity he hadn’t necessarily had before. “Possibly,” he says. “I guess we’ll see.”

 

Hotis grins. “I think we will.”

 

* * *

 

The night before the banquet, the twins find notes slipped under their respective pillows in the palace. 

 

_ Salda Tal’Dorei should’ve died,  _ the messages read in Thieves’ Cant.  _ She will at the banquet. Keep your eyes on her. Wait for our signal. _

 

Vax throws the paper into Percy’s fireplace. Vex feeds it to Trinket. They both get little sleep that night.

 

* * *

 

Pike worries her holy symbol as she is lead down the halls of the palace towards the banquet. She looks up at the guard who is leading her, goes to say something.

 

Instead, she bites her lip and tucks her symbol into her shirt as he stops in front of a large pair of doors and holds one open for her. 

 

“Lady Trickfoot.”

 

She nods to him and slips inside.

 

The hall is already quite full. A buzz of conversation fills the room, soft music accompanying it. Pike sees no one she recognizes, though there would be very few people she’d recognize anyway. 

 

She hurriedly finds a seat at a table with a white-haired human man whose head is buried in a book. A servant stands behind him who looks like Vex, but not. 

 

Pike nods to the servant, who smiles at her, before going back to surveying the room. The human doesn’t look up from his book.

 

Pike sighs, worries her lip, and waits for someone she recognizes. 

 

She’s been sitting for a while when someone slides into the seat next to her.

 

Another gnome, she quickly realizes, decked out in purple silks and holding a musical instrument of some sort. He smiles easily at her.

 

“Now what’s a gnome like you doing at a banquet like this?”

 

Pike reaches to rub her symbol of Sarenrae nervously, but remembers that it’s tucked under her dress. She takes a deep breath. “Oh, you know,” she says.

 

The gnome leans on the table. “I know what I’m doing here,” he says, holding out a hand. “Scanlan Shorthalt, Scanlan to my friends.” A wink in her direction. “And we’re friends, right?”

 

Pike raises an eyebrow. “I’m not too sure--”

 

“Great!” Scanlan says. He looks around the room. “Did you know,” he says, “that I’m the emperor’s personal musician? I serve this court--” he gestures widely “--by providing the best music in all of Tal’Dorei.”

 

“I see,” Pike says. 

 

“I would play you something now,” Scanlan says, “but alas, my services tonight are reserved for the lady of the hour. The cleric who saved the Empress. Lady Trickfoot. You know of her?”

 

Pike really wishes her symbol was free. She worries her lip. “I’ve heard the name,” she says, not sure why she doesn’t want him to know who she is.

 

Scanlan beams. “Lady Trickfoot, you see, requires that my services be reserved only for her. She will take only the best, and does not like to share.” He leans in close and speaks again in a whisper. “But between you and me, if you’d want to get together later, I could play you a little ditty or two.”

 

Pike is amused, despite herself. “Tell me more about this lady,” she says, leaning back in her chair. 

 

“She requested me by name,” Scanlan says, with a twinkle in his eye, and even though Pike knows he’s lying some part of her is intrigued by him.

 

“You must have quite the acclaim, Scanlan Shorthalt.”

 

“Oh, I do,” Scanlan takes one of her hands in his and kisses the back of it theatrically. “I would be a lord, but a title like that doesn’t fit a scoundrel like me, my lady. It is my destiny to--”

 

Pike sits up straighter as she sees someone she recognizes, finally. Keyleth and Vex enter together, decked out in their best dresses. Pike stands, interrupting Scanlan, and waves her hand. “Keyleth,” she calls.

  
They barely know each other, but that’s better than nothing.

 

Keyleth smiles when she sees Pike, crossing the room and pulling Vex along.

 

Pike’s too occupied by greeting them to notice the odd looks that Vex and the male servant that looks like her exchange.

 

“I’m so glad to see you!” Keyleth says, shaking Pike’s hand enthusiastically.    
  


“It’s certainly a delight, darling,” Vex says. 

 

Pike gestures to the seats around her. There are three unclaimed seats at the table, one next to Pike and the others between Scanlan and the white haired man.  

 

Keyleth takes the one next to Pike. Vex sits down next to Scanlan. 

 

Percy looks up as Keyleth ends up in the chair next to him. He realizes that he’s not alone rather quickly, his face flushing red at how long it took.

 

“Greetings,” he says, setting his book aside. He gestures for Vax to sit as well.

 

Vax reluctantly slips into the seat next to his sister.

 

Keyleth is quick to point out the similarity. “You two look like you could be--”

 

“Twins,” Vax interrupts. “Vax’ildan. You know my sister, Vex’ahlia. It’s a pleasure.”

 

Keyleth flushes a little. “Keyleth,” she says, dipping her head.

 

Pike looks towards Percy. “And what’s your name? I’m sorry we’ve taken over your table.”

 

“No, it’s quite alright,” Percy says. “I’m Percival Fredrickstein Von--”

 

“You can call him Percival,” Vax says over the middle of Percy’s name.

 

“--de Rolo III.” Percy shoots Vax a look. He’s never had a servant who speaks to him quite like Vax does. It’s not that he minds, it’s just that… well, it’s too natural. It’s odd. Despite everything, Vax has broken through defenses that he never thought could be broken.

 

Pike smiles at him. “I’m--” she looks over towards Scanlan, remembering that he doesn’t know who she is. “--delighted,” she finishes. 

 

Not a single one of them mentions the way this feels rather natural. Not a single one of them mentions the way this is familiar, the way this tugs at their hearts. 

 

Vex and Vax are full of anxiety for whatever the Clasp has planned. Keyleth and Percy are always anxious. Pike’s nervous about being the woman of the hour. Scanlan’s not nervous, but he’s a little frustrated to be interrupted.

 

Instead, they make small talk for a while. Except it’s not small talk, not really. It doesn’t have the flatness of small talk. It’s just… easy conversation.

 

They are finally interrupted by the doors opening. Uriel Tal’Dorei strides into the room, Salda on his arm. The kids follow behind them, giggling, before they straighten and hold their heads high in an attempt to appear royal.

 

Behind them, Grog follows dutifully, axe at the ready. His eyes scan the room for threats immediately as he takes his position next to the head table.

 

Pike hadn’t realized that Percy’s table, and thus the table they were all at, was right next to the head table, but she sure does realize it now, as Uriel helps Salda into her seat and their guard comes to stand between Pike’s table and their table. 

 

The children find their seats, too, and Uriel turns to the crowd that has gone silent upon his arrival. 

 

“Friends,” he says, clasping his hands together. “Welcome. Before dinner is served, I have a guest to thank.”

 

He smiles, eyes settling on Pike. “This guest is owed thanks for saving my wife,” he says, gesturing back at Salda. “Pike Trickfoot, cleric of Sarenrae.”

 

Keyleth puts a hand on Pike’s shoulder, a grin on her face. Pike nods to her and then glances at Scanlan, a smile crossing her own lips as she stands, pulling her holy symbol from beneath her dress. She dips her head to Uriel. “It was the least I could do, sir.”

 

Uriel chuckles warmly. The look of astonishment on Scanlan’s face is enough to combat the anxious twisting in Pike’s stomach. 

 

“Humble,” Uriel says, “as might be expected. However, she--”

 

He’s cut off as a blast rocks the room. It starts in the corner of the head table opposite to Pike’s and manages to blast Grog towards the group of them. All seven of them are blasted, almost in a group, towards a wall. 

 

As Pike gets her bearings, she extracts herself from underneath Keyleth and Scanlan, stumbling to her feet. She coughs a few times in the smoke that is filling the room. 

 

Vex and Vax are already standing. Pike sees their hands clasped together. She looks towards the royal family’s table, going to rush forward to do what healing she can.

  
Vax stops her with a hand on her shoulder, expression serious. Behind her, the others are getting to their feet.

 

“If you help them you’ll be in danger,” Vax says, expression flat. “We’re all in danger.” He looks to Vex. “We need to go.”   
  
“You need to go? What do you mean you need to go?” Pike asks. She mutters a few words under her breath and sends healing through all of them. She sees Grog stumbling to his feet and hurries to him, putting a hand on his chest. “I’ve got you,” she murmurs, “what’s your name?”

 

“Grog,” he says, looking towards the table. He goes to walk forward. Nervously, Pike stops him. Her eyes turn back to Vax.

 

“What do you  _ mean _ you need to go?”   
  
She surveys the others-- Percy and Keyleth are helping each other up and Scanlan is clutching a woman she doesn’t recognize. 

 

“ _ We _ need to go,” Vax says. He looks to Vex. “There are tunnels in the gardens, yes?”   
  
Vex swallows nervously. “Yes. We need to go.”

 

“What do you mean  _ we need to go, _ ” Percy says, stepping up next to them. “Do you know something about this?”   
  
Vax grimaces. “Unfortunately.”

 

Pike sighs. She grabs her holy symbol. “I’m going to go see who I can help.”

 

“Pike,” Vex says, a hand on her shoulder. Pike shrugs her off.

 

“I don’t know what is going on,” Pike says, “but I certainly am not going to--”

 

She’s cut off by another blast. Vex and Vax visibly wince, exchanging looks. The Clasp was really serious this time, clearly. 

 

Pike staggers back a bit,  _ very  _ aware that Vex probably saved her life by making her wait a moment. She swallows. “Okay. We need to get out of here.”   
  


She looks around at the group of them. “Can you all walk?”

 

She gets nods from all of them but Grog, who is still staring at the blast location, and Scanlan, who is talking to the woman she doesn’t know. 

 

She walks over to Grog and grabs his hand. This feels natural, somehow, and shakes him out of the daze he’s in.

 

They’re all shaken from the haze they’re in by the arrival of Trinket, lumbering in at a quick pace towards Vex. He comes to a stop in front of the group of them.

 

Vex scratches his ear. 

 

Percy straightens his coat. Pike registers the fact that he’s drawn some sort of weapon. She realizes that Vax has daggers, that Vex is pulling a bow from where it’s hidden in Trinket’s armor. Keyleth is watching nervously. 

 

Scanlan looks up. “Kaylie can’t walk,” he says. “She was closer to the blast than we were.”   
  
Vex looks between Kaylie and Scanlan. “Trinket can carry her.”

 

Scanlan helps her over to the bear. Pike wonders why he’d been flirting with her if he had Kaylie. 

 

Kaylie answers her unasked question by shoving Scanlan off. “I’m fine. Just because you’re my father doesn’t mean you have to baby me.”

 

Pike pulls her gaze from them. She looks back over towards the royal family’s table. 

 

She can’t see Salda, or any of the kids. She sees Uriel halfway across the room, having been thrown by the blast. He’s slowly being helped to his feet.

 

Behind him, a few black hooded figures slip into the room. Pike sees a glint of metal.

 

“Let’s not run,” she says, even as she sees more appear behind the table where the royal family had been seated. “There are-- There are still people here who we can help.”

 

She straightens herself and squeezes her holy symbol. “How are you all in a fight?”

 

She knows the answer. It’s written in Vax’s grin, in the way Vex shifts her weight the moment Pike asks this. She reads the answer in Percy straightening his glasses and Keyleth planting her feet and moving her hands, mumbling under her breath. It’s there in Grog, too, as his eyebrows furrow in anger and his hands tighten around his axe. And it’s there in Scanlan, as he lifts a stringed instrument and stands in front of Kaylie, licking his lips to prepare for a song.

 

It’s there in her, too, as she plants her feet and raises her symbol to Sarenrae. She knows they can see it.

 

She glances around at her new friends. “Let’s do this, then.”


	3. Chapter 3

Hotis hisses angrily as he watches Pike rally the rest of Vox Machina to fight.

 

His companion looks between him and the image that they are watching of Vox Machina. “Aren’t they meant to flee, to be fram--”

 

“Shut up,” he hisses to his companion.

 

“But--”

 

Hotis glares at him, waves his hand, and Pike Trickfoot wakes up in the temple of Sarenrae. Percy, Scanlan, Grog, and Keyleth wake up in the palace. Vex and Vax under the city in the Clasp.

 

And it begins anew.

 

* * *

 

 

It starts like this: Pike and Scanlan meet in a bar. Percy and Vex find each other in the gardens. Vax and Keyleth meet in the kitchens. Grog literally bumps into Pike as she visits the palace. Percy seeks out Keyleth’s help with a project. Vax decides it’d be fun to prank the king’s bodyguard and Grog gets him back. Scanlan and Vex meet in the wine cellar and he doesn’t tell anyone she was swiping a bottle. Time after time, no matter how far apart he keeps them, Vox Machina meet each other and become friends. One after the other, despite everything.

 

It’s infuriating.

 

He has to reset it as soon as they start working together, because if they realize what’s going on they’ll work together to break the illusion, and he can’t have that.

 

And so it starts like this: The twins seek out Pike for help healing Vax from a poison. Keyleth gets Grog’s help with tree-trimming and he sticks around for tea. Scanlan plays for Percy at a party and Percy finds his music intriguing.

 

After maybe the tenth reset, Hotis punches the wall angrily. The magic has begun to take a toll on him.

 

His companion watches from across the room. He’s learned not to speak.

 

In the next room, Vox Machina still sleeps, the magic keeping them alive as it keeps them trapped.

 

* * *

 

This time, it starts like this: Pike hears a song and she can’t get it out of her head.

 

It takes her a while to figure out that she’s been humming it, she doesn’t realize until Father Tristan asks her if she wouldn’t mind humming something new. And it takes a little longer for her to realize where she heard it-- a bar near the palace she’d passed as she ran errands for the temple.

 

She goes back there that night.

 

She comes to a stop in front of the bar, immediately perking up as she hears the sound of the same voice that got the song stuck in her head.

 

She’s shaken from where she’s standing by a goliath almost tripping over her. She goes sprawling forward.

 

Grog helps her up, eyes wide and apologetic. “‘m sorry,” he says. “I didn’ see you there.”

 

Pike takes his hand with a smile. “That’s alright.” She looks back towards the entrance to the bar.

 

He dusts her off with a hand larger than her head. “Name’s Grog,” he says, smiling down at her. “I’m sorry for knockin’ you down.”

 

Pike holds up her hand to shake his. “My name’s Pike,” she says. “Say, Grog, do you know who’s singing in there?”  
  
Grog careens his head towards the door, shaking her hand with a strength that almost knocks her over. He spots something inside and smiles.

 

“That’s Scanlan,” he says. He looks her up and down and holds out a hand, palm up. “May I?”

 

She jumps on, and Pike doesn’t dare comment on how safe she feels when he puts her down on his shoulders.

 

He ducks through the door with her on his shoulder, as she easily balances as though she’s done it every other day of her life.

 

“ _That’s_ Scanlan,” Grog says, pointing across the bar to where a gnome in purple is standing on a table, in the middle of putting down a stringed instrument and picking up a flute.   
  
He puts the flute to his lips, and the music makes her feel almost nostalgic.

 

Grog shakes her out of it, a hand patting her legs. “You alright, Pike?”

 

Pike shakes her head a bit. “Yeah,” she says, “yeah I’m good.”

 

Grog lifts her up and sets her down on a table next to him. “What’s got you interested in Scanlan anyway?”

 

“I heard his music,” Pike says, still having to look up to talk to Grog.

 

She feels a tap on her leg and now looks down.

 

A pair of near identical faces stare up at her. The one who tapped her leg, a half-elf man with long black hair, grins mischievously as she looks down.

 

“As much as I love the fact that you’ve dropped into our life, I think you might want to move,” he says.

 

The other, a girl with a braid over one shoulder and a matching grin on her face, waves a hand. “We can see far too much, darling. Save it for at least after a few drinks, if you know what I mean.”

 

Pike flushes. “G-Grog,” she says, “would you mind helping me down?”

 

She gets herself settled in a chair, and Grog crams himself into another, and she quickly discovers the reason why they’re so close to the door. A giant bear sits in the corner, just behind Vex. It offers her something close to a smile.

 

“‘m sorry,” Grog tells Pike, hanging his head. She puts a hand on one of his giant knees.

 

“It’s alright,” she says. She looks to the pair of twins in front of her. “I am sorry for that,” she continues. “My name’s Pike.”

 

“I’m Vex,” the girl says, and points to her brother. “He’s Vax.”

 

Vax grins. “I’m Vax,” he says. “She’s Vex.”

 

Pike smiles back. “That’s Grog,” she says. “We met outside-- he bumped into me.”

 

Grog hangs his head again. “Didn’ mean to do that either.”

 

Pike laughs. “It’s okay, Grog!”

 

Vex leans around them, beaming as she sees something. She raises a hand. “If it isn’t Keyleth,” she calls.

 

Pike can’t see around Grog, so she has to wait for the red-head to come into view. Keyleth waves nervously. “Hi, Vex,” she says. She looks around at the others, at some sort of a loss for what to say next.

 

Vex takes it in stride. “Keyleth, darling, sit down. Everyone, this is Keyleth. We work together in the gardens.”

 

Keyleth gets crammed between Vax and the bear. She reaches back and scratches behind his ears. “Hi, Trinket.”

 

Vax sees something across the room and peels himself off from the group, whispering something in Vex’s ear.

 

Vex is unbothered, grinning as she asks for a round of drinks for them. Across the room, Scanlan still plays.

 

Vax returns quickly, a white haired human in tow. He grins as he guides the man, hands on his shoulders, between Vex and Pike before cramming himself back in between his sister and Keyleth. “This,” he says, gesturing grandly, “is Percy. Or… What’s the full name, Percival?”

 

Percy looks up, cheeks red. “Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III,” he says.

 

Vex claps a hand on his shoulder. “That’s quite the mouthful, darling.”

 

Vax laughs. “Percy’s my boss, back at the palace. He’s a _lord._ ”

 

Percy looks between the twins. “I’m only an ambassador, really,” he says. He reaches for the drink in front of Pike, but freezes when he realizes it’s hers. She shoves it into his hand, and he smiles gratefully.

 

“Thank you--” he looks at her expectantly, waiting for a name.

 

“Pike,” she says. She nods up to Grog. “That’s Grog.”

 

“A pleasure,” Percy says.

 

Vax takes over, reaching around his sister to clap Percy’s back. “My sister, Vex,” he says, nodding to her. His other arm goes around Keyleth’s shoulders. “Her friend, Keyleth.”

 

Keyleth peels Vax’s arm off of her with a blush. She clears her throat. “Nice to meet you, Percival.”

 

“Percy’s fine.”

 

Another drink gets set down in front of Pike, and she downs it quickly, jumping back into the conversation as Vex makes a comment that sends all of them-- especially Vax-- into a burst of laughter.

 

Pike doesn’t even find herself questioning this, the way they all have slid easily into conversation and seats around the table-- Pike next to Grog, Percy on Vex’s right and Keyleth on Vax’s left, the twins pressed shoulder to shoulder with Trinket behind them. She doesn’t question it, so she doesn’t think about how there’s a hole of some sort between Grog and Keyleth.

 

Instead, she watches Grog take down an entire drink in a single gulp, as the entire table laughs.

 

They talk for a while, not noticing how quickly they become the loudest table in the place.

 

They do notice it when, for the second time that night, a pair of gnomish feet plant themselves in the middle of their table. They all look up in surprise, Pike’s eyes meeting the grinning eyes of Scanlan Shorthalt.

 

“You folk seem ready for a good time,” he says, gesturing dramatically as the crowd begins to converge on their table.

 

“I’m always ready for a good time, darling,” Vex deadpans. “Just not necessarily with you.”

 

“I’m _hurt_ , my lady,” Scanlan says. He strums a few chords on a stringed instrument. He turns, eyes sweeping around the group of them. “But, alas, with your sacrifice, I am freed for one of your--”

 

Vax steals Keyleth’s drink from around Scanlan’s leg. She shoots him a look but doesn’t stop him. “The only sacrifice being made here is Percival’s drink,” he says, gesturing to where Scanlan has knocked over the glass.

 

Pike accepts a wad of napkins that Grog steals from a nearby table and shoves them towards Percy. She looks back up at Scanlan.

 

He beams. “You,” he says, holding a hand out towards her, “shall be my partner for the evening.”

 

Pike hears Grog laugh next to her and feels Vex elbow her around Percy. “Go on then, darling,” Vex says with a wink.

 

Pike hesitates, but Scanlan is still staring down at her, and maybe there’s something too familiar about his smile for her to feel unsafe taking his hand.

  
And so she does. And she’s pulled up into his arms, as he dramatically dips her backwards and beams down at her. “My lady.”

 

She stands back up and catches her balance on the table that is certainly not designed for a pair of gnomes. Scanlan easily moves to balance the weight, though, and she sees Grog grip the edge to make sure it doesn’t tip after a nudge from Percy.

 

That, she appreciates.

  
She clears her throat a bit. “Scanlan,” she says, for lack of a similar reply.

 

His curiosity seems to be piqued at this. “You know my name,” he says, going back to plucking at the strings of his instrument. “Alas, I don’t know yours.”

 

Pike watches his hands carefully. “Pike Trickfoot,” she says.

 

Scanlan beams. “This song,” he calls, addressing the crowd that Pike just now realizes has gathered around them. “Is for the lady Pike Trickfoot.” One hand leaves his instrument while the other somehow keeps playing, and Scanlan gestures grandly to Pike with a wink.

 

He launches into a song, and Pike’s eyes widen a bit when she realizes it’s the same song that’s been stuck in her head. She also realizes, as Scanlan opens his mouth and begins to sing, that it’s an old gnomish love song. The tempo’s different but… the melody is the same, and the words, well…

 

Scanlan sings in common, but Pike finds herself tapping her foot along with Scanlan’s song and singing the gnomish words under her breath.

 

He takes her foot tapping as an invitation to dance, kicking up his feet and beginning to circle the table. Pike matches him, if only to keep the table from tipping, and he winks at her as the two of them end up in a twirling dance, circling around the center of the table across from each other.

 

Pike is vaguely aware of her surroundings, but for some reason it feels like the entire world is her, Scanlan, and the people sitting around the table below them, cheering them on with laughter and clapping to the rhythm. She finds herself grinning, and when Scanlan begins the second verse, she comes in with a gnomish echo seconds behind him.

 

It’s as if they’ve sung this a thousand times before meeting the first time.

 

Scanlan’s hand moves to his hip and she knows the flute is coming before she sees the flash of metal. The stringed instrument swings behind his back and Scanlan tips his head to her as he lifts the flute to his lips.

 

He winks, she beams, and she takes over the melody, translating the lyrics into common as she goes.

 

Playing the flute now, Scanlan moves closer, and Pike matches him, the two of them meeting in the center of the table and circling each other from inches apart. Pike’s verse reaches a crescendo and Scanlan kicks his legs up, his eyes shining as she finishes the note and he carries it on with his flute. Pike laughs when he winks at her, and she reaches behind him to swing his other instrument down as if she knows what’s coming.

 

And she does, because seconds later he’s handing his flute off to her and picking the music back up with a dramatic strum of strings. _Chorus,_ he mouths, as if Pike needs the clarification. She winks back at him this time, spinning back away from him, flute still in her hands. She miscalculates, just a bit, but Grog saves her from tipping off the table as Scanlan starts the common lyrics once again and Pike waits just long enough before adding her echo.

 

The song finishes like this: Pike Trickfoot, cleric at Sarenrae’s temple in Emon, who has never played a flute in all of her memory, lifts Scanlan’s flute to her lips and plays one final note on top of Scanlan’s finishing chord.

 

Pike hands the flute back to Scanlan, panting heavily as the crowd around them explodes into cheers and applause. Dazed, she tries to climb off the table and back into her chair, but Scanlan catches her wrist.

 

He pulls her back, eyes wide and searching hers. “Have we met?” he breathes, and Pike opens her mouth to tell him that of course they haven’t, but the words die in her throat.

 

“I--” Of _course_ they haven’t met before. She should really pull her wrist away, she should really sit back down between Grog and Percy and buy them another round of drinks.

 

But something’s stopping her, and she’s not sure what.

 

And then she is sure, because it hits her that the warmth in her chest isn’t just from the dancing. Her symbol of Sarenrae sits against her skin, and she can feel it pulsing warmly.

 

She closes her eyes for a moment, Scanlan’s hand still on her wrist, and listens.

 

Sarenrae has been quiet, recently. But she’s not now, her voice and presence sliding into Pike’s mind like it’s always been there. _Scanlan asks the right question_ , her goddess tells her, and Pike’s barely able to focus enough to drown out the noise around her and the way Scanlan is staring at her expectantly, let alone being able to focus enough to reply. _Trust your heart, Pike, trust the familiarity and trust the doubt. You know them. Keep them close. And fight this._ She feels Sarenrae’s presence ebbing, and desperately tries to clutch onto it. She knows Sarenrae can sense this, because she feels the warmth surround her for a moment. _You can do this,_ her goddess whispers, and then she is gone.

 

And Pike is still standing on a table in the middle of a bar with Scanlan’s hand clasped around her wrist.

 

She inhales, heavily, and pulls her hand away from him. “I don’t know,” she says, because that’s the truth. She swallows. “Will you join us for a drink.”

 

Scanlan’s eyes don’t leave her face. “That’d be good,” he says. The crowd starts to disperse, and Pike lets Grog help her down off the table.

 

She settles into the same seat, Scanlan pulls a chair up between Grog and Keyleth, and Vex orders them another round of drinks.

 

Everyone at the table is silent for a long moment after the waitress disappears, watching Pike and Scanlan.

 

Scanlan, who is still staring at Pike, and Pike, who is clutching her holy symbol like her life depends on it and not making eye contact with anyone.

 

Keyleth breaks the silence, finally. “That was… an amazing performance,” she says. “It’s almost like you guys rehearsed it!”  
  
“We didn’t,” Pike and Scanlan say at the same time.

 

“Could’ve fooled us,” Vax says, looking between them.

 

Scanlan still doesn’t look away. “I’d remember meeting someone like you,” he says, though it lacks the flirtatious undertones he usually puts on. “We haven’t met until today.”

 

Pike takes a deep breath. “Something’s not right,” she says, lowering her hands from her symbol to rest flat against her knees. “Because Scanlan’s right. I don’t remember meeting until today, but…” she swallows.

 

She takes a minute to look up. Everyone’s eyes are on her, now. She has to crane her neck a little bit to see Grog, and her heart warms and tightens at the same time as they make eye contact. She’s missing something here, she’s sure of it, because she has no other way of explaining the fact that she can read his confusion like it’s second nature-- he’s confused because they all are, not because he doesn’t understand why they’re confused.

 

She lowers her gaze, skipping over Scanlan and making eye contact with Keyleth. The crinkle in the corner of her eye tells her Keyleth wants to look away, but isn’t going to, so she does, moving to Vax. He avoids her gaze, at first, but she knows somehow how to catch his, and she learns something in that alone.

 

Vex matches Pike’s stare without hesitation, but Pike knows she’s a bit shaken by the weirdness that’s going on because one of her hands is playing with Trinket’s fur-- balling it tightly and then letting it go, smoothing it out, and clutching at it again.

 

Percy meets her eyes when she looks at him, all cold, projected composure. She doesn’t need to look down to know his hands are shaking.

 

She looks back to Scanlan. His eyes search hers like she holds the secrets to the universe, and Pike wishes she could give them to him. Instead, she drops her gaze to her lap.

 

“But?” Vex finally prompts.

 

“But I’ve sung that duet before,” Pike says finally. She closes her eyes for a moment, steels herself again, and looks back up at them. “We… we all need to talk,” she says. “This is too familiar, don’t you think? Doesn’t… doesn’t it feel natural to be sitting where you’re sitting right now?”

 

There’s a long pause that no one dares to break, until Grog does, one hand coming down to rest on Pike’s head. “Feels like you’re s’posed to be here,” he says, reaching up to tap his shoulder. “When you sat up there it was…” he frowns, at a loss for words.

 

“Familiar,” Vex breathes, making the attention shift her way. She looks from Vax to Percy and then back between them again. “It feels like I’ve sat here before. And when Percy said his name I thought…”

 

“That you’d heard it before?” Percy asks quietly. “I could’ve sworn I’d heard you call me darling in the past, when we’ve never spoken,” he says. “But that’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

 

“It’s _absolutely_ ridiculous,” Keyleth says with a nervous giggle. “S--still, I wouldn’t say that I haven’t felt the same thing. When Vax stole my drink…”

 

“I did it on impulse, like I’d done it before,” Vax finishes.

 

Scanlan shifts in his seat. “I’ll admit I wasn’t surprised when Vex declined my advances. And more than that…” he looks back to Pike. “You knew exactly the way that song was going to go, even the ways I’d changed it from the original.”

 

She doesn’t have to think about it long to know that she did. She moves her hands in a wide gesture to indicate all of them. “Us sitting like this,” Pike says, “feeling like us together is familiar in a way that’s just out of our reach…” She reaches out and takes Grog’s hand.

 

There’s a shift around the table as Vex moves from Trinket, who nudges his head in under her arm while she takes Percy and Vax’s hands. Vax grabs Keyleth, and Pike reaches out to take Percy’s free hand. Keyelth follows everyone’s example and grabs Scanlan’s hand, and with an exchange of looks Scanlan and Grog finish their circle.

 

Pike looks around at them. “It’s like we’re old friends,” she says, “isn’t it?”

 

“It’s like we’re a family,” Vax says softly.

 

They sit in silence for a long time after that one, all of them-- even Grog-- lost in their own heads.


	4. Chapter 4

 

Outside, Hotis the rakshasa throws a dagger across the room. It impacts into the wall, thrumming a bit with leftover force. His companion jumps back a bit. 

 

“You should probably reset it,” he says, earning another dagger impact in the wall just next to his head. 

 

“I know that,” Hotis hisses. He moves his hands and mumbles a bit of the incantation.

 

Nothing happens.

 

Hotis curses under his breath and storms towards the door, throwing it open and walking over to Vox Machina’s door. He waves his hand to unlock that door before pushing it open.

 

His eyes settle, immediately, on the reason he can no longer reset his curse.

 

On top of Grog, Pike Trickfoot has curled around her symbol of Sarenrae, gripping it between her hands, even in her sleep.

 

And from between her hands a light is shining, bright against the dark red of the curse hanging in the air. 

 

The light of Sarenrae has settled around Vox Machina, meddling with Hotis’s curse. 

  
Hotis curses again and pulls the door shut, slamming the door to his own room once he’s back inside of it. “N--Never mind it,” Hotis says. “If I can’t reset it, I’ll just make it terribly difficult for them to escape.” He settles himself down in the center of the circle he’d used to cast the spell. “I need you to go get some supplies,” he tells his companion. 

 

It crosses his mind to suggest backup, in case Vox Machina wake up, but he shakes the thought immediately. He won’t let that happen. 

 

“Of course,” his companion says. “Whatever you need.”

 

* * *

It’s Percy who breaks the silence, pulling his hands from Vex and Pike and folding them over each other on the table. “So what do we do now? We have a feeling, and that’s it. Certainly not any proof. And no idea what is going on, even  _ if  _ that feeling is right.”

 

Pike bites her lip. She holds up her holy symbol, letting the light from the bar glint off of it. “We don't just have a feeling,” she says softly. “After Scanlan asked me if we’d met before, I heard my goddess speak to me.”

 

“What did she say?” Keyleth asks, leaning forward to see the symbol. 

 

Pike lets it fall back against her chest. “She said that Scanlan asked the right question.”

 

“Have we met?” Scanlan repeats himself from earlier, tipping his head a bit.

 

“I think we all know… the answer’s yes,” Pike says. “She also told me to-- to trust my heart, to trust the familiarity and the doubt I was having. She said… she said I know you, and she said to keep you close, and…”

 

“And?” Percy is watching her carefully from next to her. 

 

“She said to fight this,” Pike says. “That I-- that we could do this.” 

 

“I’ve got a question,” Vax says, waving a hand. “What the hell is ‘ _ this’ _ ”

 

Pike sighs heavily. “I--I’m sorry, I wish I knew. I don’t think she could maintain the contact she had for very long. I could barely get what I got.”

 

“There’s no need to be sorry, darling,” Vex says, shooting her brother and Percy looks in turn. “Pike’s right, we know each other.”   
  
“Yes,” Percy says finally. “We do. But that doesn’t  _ help  _ us.”

 

Pike nods. She knows that, wishes she could give more.

 

“We need to figure out what happened to make us all… forget,” Scanlan says.

 

Keyleth raises a hand. “We could all go stay and Vex’s and my place,” she says. “It’s not the biggest but we could all fit. And maybe spend the night figuring stuff out?”

 

“Oh, that’s smart,” Vex says, eyes brightening. “Keyleth’s right, we should get out of this bar, at the very least.”

 

They all agree, and so they all stand and head out of the bar. Grog lifts Pike onto one shoulder, and then Scanlan onto the other. Vex and Vax walk pressed together, and Percy and Keyleth walk next to each other a little bit behind them. Trinket lumbers along, unaware of what’s going on.

 

From on top of Grog’s shoulder, Pike clutches her holy symbol and tries to reach out to Sarenrae. 

 

At first, all she feels is the shifting of Grog below her. 

 

And then she feels the glimmer of warmth again.

 

She gasps from her perch, and tries her best to grab it tightly. She vaguely hears Grog say “you alrigh’ there Pike?” and she manages to nod, reaching down to steady herself. 

 

She screws her eyes shut tighter and chases the warmth. 

 

And she sees Emon, in her mind’s eye. Except it’s not Emon as she knows it, because it’s overrun by monsters and fire and Pike can barely believe that that’s  _ Emon. _

 

Her vision moves up, up, up, until Emon is smaller than she’s ever seen it, and then it moves, rapidly. 

 

It moves  _ outside _ of the city proper, to a crumbling building on the outskirts of Emon. It moves rapidly into the keep, and Pike feels a bit like she’s coming home as her vision travels through the hallways. 

 

She can barely explain what she feels when her vision finally stops in a room with cracked stained glass walls leading up to an altar at the front of the room, framed by a beam of light from the ceiling. 

  
Sarenrae speaks softly in her mind for the first time this vision.  _ Find it. Find me. Escape. _

 

She gasps again as the vision fades abruptly, this time getting the attention of most of their party. 

 

“Pike, are you okay?” Keyleth asks, looking up to see her on Grog’s shoulder.

 

Pike’s hand loosens a bit around her holy symbol. “Yeah,” she says. She looks at the others. “Something bad is coming. It’s already started, I think, because she can see it. She showed me where to go.”

 

“She?” Grog asks.

 

Pike swallows. “Sarenrae,” she says. “We need to go outside of the city. There’s a building there with a temple to her that I… it’s somewhere I know, for sure.”

 

“Now?” Percy asks. 

 

“I…” Pike shivers a bit. They’re all tired, and most of them are at least a bit tipsy. She shakes her head. “We’ll stay at Vex and Keyleth’s tonight. We can leave early in the morning.”

 

“I hate to be a downer, but are we sure your Lady is… guiding us to the right place?” Vax asks, flipping a dagger in one of his hands. None of them question where he’d gotten it. 

 

Pike, however, bristles a bit and nudges Grog to set her down. She jogs to match the twin’s pace. “Yes,” she says. “I’m sure. She’s never…” her breath hitches a bit. She shakes her head to clear it.

 

“She’s been quiet recently,” Pike says. “But when she has spoken, something’s been off. Something’s been… missing. But this time? When I’ve felt her about  _ this _ ? It’s been her, Vax, I promise.”

 

Vax looks down at her. She holds his gaze. 

 

He flips his dagger one last time and slides it back into his belt. “Just making sure.”

 

“I know,” Pike says, and she does. 

 

“Pike, do you know the way to this keep?” Percy asks from behind her. 

 

Pike looks up at him. “Yeah, I-- I think I do, at least. I’m pretty sure.”

 

They make their way into the palace, and through the palace gardens. Keyleth jogs ahead a bit to unlock the door to a cottage that Pike is pretty sure can’t hold all of them. 

 

She’s proven wrong, though, as they all pile inside with Keyleth’s apologies for the cramped space in the background. 

 

They adjust themselves into a circle, Pike crawling onto Grog’s knee to make extra room in the space. 

 

There’s an awkward silence in the room as none of them know exactly what to say, now.

 

Finally, Percy whispers something to Vex, who grins and extracts herself from the circle to grab something from a cupboard. 

 

“Tonight,” Percy says, taking the bottle Vex hands him and holding it aloft. “We drink. Tomorrow, we figure out what the hell is going on.”

 

Another bottle is passed to Vax, and another goes across the room to Scanlan. Grog gets his own. 

 

“We’ll wake up early, so let’s not drink  _ too  _ much,” Keyleth says, taking a long sip from Vax’s bottle. 

 

“We wake at dawn,” Vex says, stealing Percy’s bottle back. 

 

“We need a plan,” Pike says, fidgeting with her holy symbol again.

 

“Tonight, we  _ drink, _ ” Grog says, shoving his bottle down to her. It’s almost empty. 

 

“We plan at dawn,” Vax offers helpfully, nudging his sister.

  
Scanlan beams. “At dawn, we plan.”

 

“At dawn,” Keyleth and Vex echo, clinking their bottles together, “we plan.”

 

Percy laughs. He takes his bottle back from Vex again and raises it high. “At dawn,” he affirms. 

 

They all laugh, now, and Pike doesn’t ignore the feeling that this is familiar. 

 

None of them do.

 

* * *

 

Hotis mutters a curse under his breath as he ignores the scene in front of him. Instead, he goes back to working with what he’s been brought by his companion.

 

“The goddess wants them to go to their keep,” he says under his breath. “I’ll just make it as hard as I can for them to get there.”

 

Hotis might be aware that he is fighting a losing battle, but he also knows that he’s more dangerous when he’s cornered. So he grits his teeth and smiles his smile and changes the world with a wave of his hand.


	5. Chapter 5

Pike wakes before dawn with a terrible feeling in her stomach.

 

It’s not dawn yet, she realizes, mainly because it’s still dark in the room.

 

She carefully extracts herself from where she’s curled on top of Grog’s shoulder. She blinks blearily, eyes focusing in the darkness. She sees the twins curled against each other, Vex’s head resting on one of Trinket’s paws. Percy’s back is pressed against Vex’s and Keyleth is crammed in between Vax and Trinket. Scanlan is laying with a head on Grog’s knee, just below where Percy’s feet come. 

 

This, Pike thinks, is natural too.

 

She makes sure to step lightly to make sure that none of them wake up, moving to the window to peer out.

 

She quickly realizes something is wrong. 

 

It’s pretty easy to see, from the ash in the air to the way the palace above them has cracked and she knows, instinctually, that this is what Sarenrae showed her-- the burning version of Emon. 

 

There’s a slight tremor in the ground, and Pike inhales sharply.

 

She turns and quickly begins to shake her friends awake. 

 

“Guys,” she hisses, one hand on each of the twin’s shoulders. The moment they start to rouse, she moves on to Keyleth, then Percy, then Scanlan and Grog. “Something’s wrong.”

 

Vax sits up groggily. “Of course something’s wrong,” he says. The rest of them slowly sit up as well. “We’re--”

 

“No,” Pike says, waving at him to get him to be quiet. “Something is  _ more _ wrong.” She gestures to the window.

 

“It’s dark out,” Vex observes. 

 

“Not because it’s not day,” Pike says. She takes a shaky breath. 

 

Keyleth is first to the window. She gasps. “It’s  _ ash. _ ”

 

Pike nods. She doesn’t look at any of them. “When I-- when I saw where we needed to go,” she says softly. “I also saw Emon. But it was burning, it was… different. It was dangerous.” She looks up at the others. “Like this surely will be.”

 

She’s not sure what she’s looking for in their eyes. Fear, maybe. Hesitation.

 

Instead she just finds understanding.

 

“Dangerous,” Grog says, a grin on his face when she meets his eyes. “Sounds fun.”

 

Pike laughs, a single exhaled chuckle. “Maybe,” she says. “But it’s definitely dangerous. We need to be careful, be ready. We all need ways to defend ourselves.”

 

“You’re right,” Vex says, and she’s pulling a bow and arrows from somewhere in Keyleth’s house. Keyleth shuffles nervously as Vex inspects a few arrows and then swings the quiver over her shoulder. “But who knows, maybe together we’re strong enough to pull this off.”

 

Percy pulls a strange weapon from under his coat. He turns it in his hands a few times and then puts it back. “I think you might just be right.”

 

Pike knows Vax has his daggers. Grog, the axe strapped to his back. 

 

Keyleth answers her question before she asks it when Pike’s eyes meet hers. “I mainly use my magic to keep up the gardens,” she says, “but I think I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” 

 

Pike nods. She looks towards Scanlan.

 

Scanlan sees her gaze and grins. “I’m a bard, baby,” he says, “my songs hold a little more magic than just the music.” 

 

Pike shakes her head. She should’ve expected that. “What about you, Pike?” Keyleth asks. 

 

Pike smiles. “I’ve got Sarenrae,” she says. “And these.” She holds up her fists with a wide grin. 

 

Grog laughs, a loud belly laugh that makes Pike feel at home again. “You’re a little monstah!” he says, reaching for something on his belt. “But here.” He shoves a small mace towards her. “I took this from someone yesterday,” he says, as Pike turns it over in her hands. 

 

She smiles, swinging it a few times. She’s not sure why, but she’s pretty sure she knows how to use this.

 

“Great,” she says, and shoves it into her belt. “Thanks, Grog.”

 

“No problem, buddy,” Grog says with a wave of his hand as he accepts a loaf of bread Keyleth shoves into his hands. 

 

“So where is this keep, Pike?” Percy asks, chewing on a slice of bread at Keyleth and Vex’s kitchen table.

 

Pike accepts a bit of bread from the end of Grog’s loaf and looks over at Percy. “Outside of the city,” she says. “To the south.”

 

“Through the slums, then,” Percy says. 

 

Pike nods. “I get the feeling it won’t be so easy to get there.” 

 

Vax lobs a dagger at the wall. It sticks in and Keyleth pulls it out, shooting him a look. He grins at her. “Ease up, Kiki, it’s apparently the end of the world.”

 

“It’s still my house!” Keyleth says. 

 

Scanlan climbs up on the table. Pike wonders if this is going to become a pattern with them. “So what is our plan?” he calls, looking around at all of them. 

 

“Easy,” Grog says. “We head towards Pike’s place and whoever’s in our way we smash ‘em.”

 

Vex smiles dryly. “As much as I love that plan, darling, I think we need a better one.”

 

“Surely,” Percy agrees. 

 

Keyleth pinches the bridge of her nose. “Is no one worried about the sky full of ash?”

 

“I’m plenty worried,” Vax supplies. “But there’s nothing we can really do about that.”

 

Percy makes a noise of affirmation. “We’re no heroes,” he says, “we can’t try to act like we are. We need to move quickly, get to that temple, and hope.”

 

“Hope?” Scanlan asks. 

 

“Hope that that’s all we need to do,” Percy says. 

 

Something somber settles over them. Pike stands up straight, puts her hands on her hips, and raises her chin. “If it’s not we’ll figure it out,” she says. “I’m sure of it.”

 

She can  _ see _ the change in their resolve, and that’s familiar to her, that her having faith has given them a bit of hope. She smiles to herself, and then to all of them. 

 

“We  _ can _ do this,” Pike says, gesturing out the window. “We just need to believe in each other.”

 

Vax laughs a little at that. “Isn’t it more usual to say that we need to believe in ourselves?”

 

Pike shrugs. “I know what I said,” she says, waving a hand towards him. She looks around. “Is everyone ready?”

 

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Vex says, one hand on Trinket’s back. 

 

The twins move towards the door together, and then they all move towards it. Keyleth looks around at all of them before nodding and pushing the door open. 

 

As they all step out under the ash-filled sky, the full picture of how much damage Emon has sustained overnight becomes clear. Cracks run through the palace grounds, ash fills the sky, fires burn through the streets. 

 

Keyleth looks around nervously. “Did anyone feel any tremors?” she asks.

  
Vax shakes his head. 

 

Percy looks around, fidgeting with something beneath his coat. “I don’t think there were tremors,” he says. “I think this just happened.”

 

Vex looks over at him. “What do you mean?”

 

“I’ve just got a theory or two,” Percy says, and Pike can see now that he’s moving ammunition around in the pockets of his coat. “That’s all. Nothing worth mentioning yet.”

 

Scanlan lets out a heavy sigh. “So how do we get out of here,” he says, hands tight around his instrument.

 

The twins exchange looks. Vax sighs heavily. “We might know a way out of the city,” he says. 

 

“Other than walking?” Percy asks with a twitch of an eyebrow.

 

Vex sighs heavily. “Other than walking, darling,” she says.    
  
Scanlan waves a hand to get their attention. “Are you going to tell us, or…”

 

Vax sighs, too. “You have to understand,” he says. “We had no choice.”

 

* * *

Hotis surveys his work with a smile.  

 

“Aren’t you worried about the tunnels?” his companion remarks, watching as the twins begin to slowly explain the way they made their way into the palace. 

 

Hotis huffs in annoyance at the question. “No,” he says. “Because there are no tunnels in the palace anymore.” He leans back, crossing his arms. “You didn’t think I’d make it easy, did you?”

 

“Well of course not…” his companion says, leaning forward a bit to watch Vox Machina. “Still. You seem remarkably unbothered by all of this.”

 

Hotis is bothered. He doesn’t let his companion know of this, though. “I expected some sort of meddling,” he says. “With Vox Machina, of course I would.”

 

* * *

 

“You were here to  _ what? _ ” Keyleth asks, staring at the twins.

 

Vax looks around nervously. “Keep your voice down, okay?”

 

“I won’t-- you were here to  _ kill  _ the royal family?” Keyleth asks, her voice a half-whisper.

 

“Not necessarily kill, darling,” Vex says, clapping a hand on her shoulder. “We were just…”

 

“Insurance,” Vax says. He sighs. “Look, we never wanted to join the Clasp in the first place. We had to.”

 

Percy, who had been largely quiet as they explained, straightens, eyes snapping towards Vax. “Why?”

“Why?” Vax echoes. Pike shifts a bit, not necessarily enjoying the tension. She looks towards Scanlan and Grog, who have also been silent. Scanlan is listening, eyes travelling between those who are talking as he waits for… something. Grog is staring at the sky as if he’s looking for something there.

 

“Why did you have to,” Percy says, watching Vax still.

 

Vax is quiet. Vex, however, puts a hand on Percy’s shoulder as well, standing between him and Keyleth. “To save me,” she says softly. “Someone… undesirable took an interest in me. Vax made a deal.” Her voice gets soft, as she looks towards her brother. “Saved my ass, as they say.”

 

Percy relaxes, some level of understanding in his eyes. “Very well.”

 

Keyleth looks over at him. “Very well?”

 

“They were just plants,” Percy says, taking the ammo out of his gun. “They didn’t do anything, and they probably wouldn’t have been asked to. That’s the way these things work, you see.” He reloads it and puts it back beneath his coat.

 

Keyleth looks around at them. “You seem remarkably unbothered by this,” she says. It’s a blanket statement directed at all of them. 

 

Scanlan waves his hand around them, at the cracks in the ground and in the palace itself. “Well it hardly matters now, does it?”

 

“You won’t have to kill them if they’re already dead,” Grog supplies, attention turning back down to the group. 

 

Percy sighs. “Let’s not hope for that outcome,” he says. 

 

“Seconded,” Vex says. 

 

Scanlan steps forward. “So… your secret way out of the city?” 

 

“Right.” Vex looks towards her brother.

 

He nods. “Tunnels. Follow me.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Some tunnels,” Scanlan remarks, staring at the massive cracks in the ground in front of them. 

 

Vax kicks a chunk of dirt. “We’ll have to move above ground,” he says, watching the clump fracture and crack into one of the fissures in the earth. 

 

“That’s not… ideal,” Keyleth supplies. 

 

“No, it’s not,” Percy says. 

 

Pike taps Grog’s knee. He lifts her onto his shoulders. “We can do it, though,” she says. “Do any of you know the city well?”

 

Vex takes a few steps back from the edge of the crack and sighs. “We’re familiar with the city,” she says. “The tunnels would’ve been safer but… it can’t be helped.”

 

“You said to the south, Pike?” Vax asks, looking up at her. 

 

Pike nods from her perch. “Past the slums.”

 

He waves a hand for them all to follow, and they do. The twins lead the way, Percy on their heels, with Scanlan and Keyleth just behind and Grog and Pike bringing up the rear with Trinket. 

 

They reach the palace gates, and Pike bites her lip at the destruction in the city. 

 

“Guys?” Keyleth says, looking up at the sky as they step through the gates. “We might have a problem.”

 

Grog sees it before Pike does, because he’s already setting her down and drawing his axe by the time her eyes focus in on what Keyleth’s seen. 

 

Wyverns. No riders, but wyverns nonetheless. 

 

Before Pike can react, one of them is almost on top of her, bearing down with teeth and tail. It doesn’t keep her down for long, however, because in an instant there’s a pair of blades poking through the back of its skull and its face is replaced by Vax, who smiles and offers her a hand up.

 

She takes it quickly, letting him lift her to her feet. “Thanks, Vax,” she breathes, nodding to him and ducking around him towards the others. She sees, out of the corner of her eye, Percy take two shots into a wyvern that is bearing down on Keyleth, giving her enough time to blast it off of her with a thunderwave. It skids across the ground and doesn’t get up.

 

She watches that wyvern for a second too long, because as she runs by another tries to take a bite at her. Grog’s there, though, his axe cleaving the wyvern near in half before it gets the chance to leave his range.

 

To her left, she hears Scanlan singing, and above them one of the wyverns dives at another of its companions, the two of them spiraling through the air and impacting a building. 

 

She comes to a stop, then, and spots Vex on the other side of a wyvern that’s landed in the middle of their group. Their eyes meet, and they grin at the same time. 

 

Pike grips her holy symbol and points her free hand towards the wyvern, a golden beacon of light exploding in the center of its chest. Vex lets her arrow loose, the light guiding it true. 

 

Pike keeps running, around the wyvern as it reels from the arrow. She stops heavily on her feet next to Vex, eyes immediately reading the way she’s about to aim a bit too far to the right.

 

“Left,” she calls, reaching up to push Vex’s elbow a bit. A little bit of warmth travels up her arm and into Vex, and the half-elf’s arrow strikes true again. The wyvern falls, no longer moving. 

 

She turns, then, Vex spinning away from her to help Vax make work of another. Her eyes scan the street around them, finding three more wyverns.

 

The one Keyleth blasted back struggles to its feet.  _ Make that four, _ she thinks.

 

She sees Scanlan get caught by the tail of one of the living wyverns. He’s alone facing that one, she realizes. Grog’s got one to himself, the twins are facing another one together, and Percy’s focused on the one now staggering to its feet. Keyleth is looking around the battlefield too, but she realizes immediately that she won’t get to Scanlan in time to prevent another hit.

 

She’s not quite sure how she’s processing this so fast, or when she started thinking of this as a battlefield, but she definitely doesn’t have time to dwell on it as she starts another spell under her breath and rushes towards Scanlan.

 

“Scanlan,” she calls as she gets near, a mace made of light appearing above the head of the wyvern attacking him.    
  


His gaze flicks back towards her as the mace collides heavily with the head of the wyvern. “I’m alright baby,” he says when he sees the glowing energy of the second spell at the tips of her fingers. “I don’t need--”

 

“Shut up,” she tells him, hand clapping down on his shoulder as she sends a higher level  _ Cure Wounds _ into his body. Her hand leaves his shoulder for her mace, which she draws and holds aloft between her and the wyvern.

 

Out of the corner of her eye she sees a shift in the battlefield. Grog is making quick work of his wyvern. Vex and Percy are back to back now, bow and gun raised towards the sky. Pike curses under her breath as she realizes that she’d forgotten to look up earlier-- she counts three more in the sky, now, as the one in front of her makes a terrible hissing noise.

 

She takes the hiss as a warning and manages to duck out of the way of snapping teeth, gritting her own. She hears Keyleth breathlessly thanking Vax for taking out a wyvern and then the sound of a lightning bolt hissing through the air behind her. 

 

Her momentary lapse in concentration, she realizes, is going to cost her, as the wyvern’s tail lashes forward towards her shoulder.

 

Or it would, but Scanlan’s voice rings out clear behind her, his hands clapping in time with the beat of a song that makes her heart swell and the wyvern hesitate just long enough for her to duck out of the way.

 

“Thanks,” she breathes, spinning to the side and smacking the mace into her hands into the side of the wyvern’s head. It goes limp, and Pike jumps back to Scanlan’s side, thrusting her hand out to the side to send her spiritual weapon flying through the air. It collides with the last flying wyvern at the same time one of Percy’s bullets does. 

 

The battlefield goes silent, and Pike finds herself looking around the street breathlessly.

 

Grog beams at her when she meets his eyes, and she raises her mace in the air to show him the wyvern blood on the side of the weapon. 

 

He grins harder, raising his own axe in answer. 

 

She quickly turns to scan over her friends. “Anyone need healing?” 

 

“Keyleth,” Percy says, pointing over to where Vax is helping her up. Pike nods and jogs their way.

 

She grabs Keyleth’s hand, sending a pulse of healing energy through her friend. Keyleth smiles gratefully and stands more steady on her feet. 

 

Percy kicks one of the wyvern corpses and pulls out more ammunition for his gun. “We need to keep moving.”

 

“Agreed,” Vex says, pulling an arrow from the corpse of one of the wyverns. “And quickly.”

 

Keyleth looks around at them. “Guys,” she says, one hand brushing her hair out of her face. “We were  _ badass _ back there.”

 

Grog grins wide. “We sure as hell were.”

 

Scanlan crosses his arms. “I dunno, I’ve seen better,” he says, but there’s a shine in his eyes that means he agrees. 

 

Vax bumps his sister’s shoulder on the way to retrieve one of his daggers. “Maybe,” he says. “But Percival’s right, we need to keep moving.” 

 

Pike can tell that he’s a little worse for wear so she crosses the street and puts a hand on his hip and sends a bit of light his way in the form of another Cure Wounds. Lower level, because she can tell Vax isn’t doing terribly.  

 

Percy makes eye contact with Vax over Pike’s head. “You’ve noticed it too, then?”

 

Vax nods grimly.

 

Grog frowns. “Noticed what?”

 

Percy sweeps a hand towards their surroundings. 

 

“I’m no Grog level genius,” Scanlan says, “but I don’t get it.”

 

Vax cleans his dagger on the leg of his pants. “We’re in the middle of Emon,” he says. “Just outside the palace gates.” He gestures around them. “People live and work in these buildings. So…”

 

Percy finishes reloading his gun. “So where is everyone,” Percy finishes. 

 

Vex slides her last arrow into her quiver. “You’re right,” she says softly. Trinket lumbers up and nudges her leg. She absentmindedly rubs his head. 

 

Keyleth’s hand fidgets with her hair. “There’s no one here,” she says, walking a bit down the street. “No one but us.”

 

She looks, Pike thinks, like she’s drowning in that thought for a second in the middle of the street. 

 

Pike’s job is to pull her out of it. She hurries back over to Keyleth, reaching up to grab Keyleth’s elbow. 

 

Keyleth jumps like she’s been shocked and looks down at Pike, visibly relaxing once they make eye contact. 

 

“You’re right,” Keyleth says softly, even though Pike hasn’t said anything. She looks down the street. “Even though we’re alone, we can do this.”   
  
Pike turns to the others and takes a few steps backwards down the street. “We aren’t alone, though,” she says, gesturing for them to follow as she turns back around and starts walking towards where her vision showed her.

 

She can hear them moving behind her. Percy jogs to catch up. “Are you sure you know the way?” he asks, looking down at her.

  
Pike closes her eyes, and she can picture Emon as she saw it in her vision. She nods, pointing with one finger towards where another street branches off. “We need to go that way,” she says.

 

* * *

 

Hotis’s companion whistles at Vox Machina’s quick dispatching of the wyverns. “They’re something else,” he says.

 

Hotis flips a dagger in his hands. “I know,” he says, watching Vax do the same. “That’s why I was keeping them apart.”

 

“They’ll be strong when they get out.”

 

Hotis’s eyes flash towards his companion. “You act like you want them to win.”

 

His companion laughs softly. “No,” he says. “I just think you’re underestimating them.”

 

“Underestimating?!” Hotis nearly shouts, frustration and rage from the near three days of this curse finally getting the best of him. 

 

His exclamation is punctuated by his dagger embedding itself in the wall next to his companion. 

 

“I do not underestimate Vox Machina. I placed a curse on them that broke their bonds. They might have met again but they don’t remember. And when they wake up and remember we’ll already be there to take them down.” 

 

His companion quirks an eyebrow in his direction. 

 

Hotis stands, crossing the room to stand over his companion. “ _ I  _ have not underestimated Vox Machina.  _ I  _ have planned and planned and created this narrative for them.  _ I _ have trapped the untrappable heroes and  _ I _ will defeat them as well. The only person here that has underestimated anyone is  _ you. _ ”   
  


His companion is unmoved by this. “You have underestimated Vox Machina, Hotis,” he says. He crosses his arms beneath his cloak. “Because you have broken their bonds a few times And you think that gives you the upper hand.” 

 

He reaches over and tugs the dagger from the wall, handing it back to Hotis with a slight grin. “You forget something, kitty cat. You have broken Vox Machina’s bonds, and they have forged them again. Every time you have broken them, they have found each other again.” 

 

He blinks in the face of Hotis’s glare, not caring that he’s handing the demon in front of him a weapon while making him angry at the same time. “A broken bond is still a bond. And each time they have reforged theirs, those bonds have grown stronger.” 

 

Hotis snatches the dagger from his hand, lip curled back, more cat than humanoid. 

 

“You understand, then?” his companion says, slipping around Hotis and walking to stand in front of the image of Vox Machina slipping through the streets of Emon. 

 

Hotis angrily sheathes the dagger. He says nothing.

 

“In trying to weaken them, you have only made them stronger. But you’ve figured that out by now, haven’t you? That’s why you’re so desperate to postpone their escape.”

 

“It matters not,” Hotis says. “I’ll still defeat them.” His eyes narrow in on his companion. “You’ll help me.”

 

His companion smiles beneath the hood he still wears. “Perhaps.” 

 


	7. Chapter 7

“What did you mean?” Vax asks. Pike looks up to see him beside her. She hadn’t heard his approach, but she finds that she didn’t expect to. 

 

They’ve been maneuvering through the city with a combination of Pike’s direction and the twins’ knowledge of the streets and back streets of Emon. They’re currently in a more open stretch, just emerging from a network of alleyways that had taken them around a resting manticore that Percy had spotted.

 

Pike tips her head to the side. “Hm?”

 

“What did you mean, we aren’t alone?” Vax says. He looks to their right, where Scanlan and Grog are talking animatedly with-- or at-- Percy while he, Vex, and Keyleth try to scan the area for any more threats.

 

Pike smiles. “None of them seemed to question it.”

 

Vax ruffles her hair a bit. “Answer the question, Pickle.”

 

Pike tips her head. “Pickle?”

 

Vax shrugs. “Seemed fitting.”

 

Pike laughs softly. “Lots of things do, recently. Since meeting you guys.” She looks over at the others too, now, watches Vex scold Grog and Scanlan for something they said about Trinket. “That’s what I meant, you know.”

 

“Hm?” Vax tips his head this time. 

 

“We aren’t alone,” she says. “We’re together.”

 

Vax stares at her. “But  _ we’re  _ alone,” he says. “The seven of us. Eight if you count Trinket. It’s just us and--” he gestures widely to the city around them “--monsters.” 

 

Pike turns her holy symbol in her hands. “Yeah, but we’re not really,” she says. “Just like you and Vex weren’t alone in the Clasp, right?”

 

“It was… we were alone against the world,” Vax says quietly. “That’s how it’s always been.”

 

Pike lets her holy symbol fall back onto her chest. She reaches up and flicks his elbow. “We’re not alone against the world, Vax,” she says. “We’re together against it.”

 

Vax is quiet for a long moment. Eventually, he shakes his head and ruffles her hair again. “I don’t know how you do it.”

 

“Do what?”

 

“Give us--” he gestures towards the others “--hope, so easily. Really, it doesn’t make sense. Yesterday, barely half of us knew each other as more than a passing face. Today, we’re fighting monsters together. And yet you do…” he waves a hand, “something, and we feel like we can do it. Whatever it is.”

 

Pike’s not sure she has an answer for the question he’s trying to ask. So she shrugs and she smiles and she grabs his arm. “I don’t do much, really,” she says. “I’m not some source of inspiration for you guys, I’m just one of you. We all give each other hope. That’s how we’re gonna do this.”

 

Vax laughs breathlessly. “Where did we find you?” he asks as she tries to tug him back to the group.

 

She blinks up at him. “In a bar, remember? Grog put me down on your table.”

 

“Not in the bar, silly,” Vax says with a wave of his hand. “Before.”

 

“Before?”

 

“Well, we knew each other before, didn’t we?”

 

Pike shrugs. “Probably a temple or something.” She kicks a stone. “Come on, we should get back to the others.”

 

* * *

 

Hotis turns his attention back towards Vox Machina as well, straightening out his robes. His companion watches as he begins to move his fingers again, weaving something new into the curse.

 

His distraction had granted Vox Machina a short time’s safe passage. He won’t let it go on for much longer. 

 

* * *

 

“We’ve got a problem again,” Percy says, gesturing with his gun down the street.

 

“You could say it’s a giant one this time,” Scanlan adds, fiddling with his flute. 

 

“Very funny Scanlan,” Vex says through gritted teeth, her bow already drawn. 

 

“What’s the problem?” Pike asks as she and Vax jog the rest of the way across the small gap between them.

 

Percy points again. “Giants,” he says. “Five of them.”

 

“They look shorter than I thought,” Grog says.

 

“Hill giants, probably,” Percy says. “They’re also not the most intelligent. But still… five’s a lot.”

 

“Well, at least it’s just five,” Keyleth says, stepping back in a defensive position. 

 

“Guys?” Vex says, gaze fixed behind them. “We might have another problem.”

 

“What now?” Vax asks, following her gaze. He curses. “Why the  _ fuck  _ are there also frost giants?”

 

“Frost giants?” Percy asks in an incredulous tone. His eyes focus behind them. “Fuck.”

 

“Fuck’s right.” Vax says. “At least there’s only four of them.”

 

Percy scoffs. “Only.”

 

Vax shrugs. “Take what you get, right?”

 

They all stand, tense and waiting as they watch each line of giants walk slowly towards them, weapons drawn. “So we’re gonna fight them, right?” Grog asks.

 

“No, we’re going to sit down and have tea,” Scanlan supplies.   
  
Pike sighs. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to have much of a choice, Grog.” 

 

“Great,” he says, and Pike can see his rage come over his eyes. He yells something that none of them can understand, draws his axe, and charges towards the five hill giants.

 

“Grog--!” Vex is calling, but it’s too late. She curses and begins to run after him. Pike looks up and catches Percy’s eyes. He shrugs.

 

“We should probably go after him,” he says, readying his gun. “We can deal with the frost giants when they catch up to us.”

 

“Sounds like as good of a plan as we’re going to get,” Vax says, and Pike watches as he and Percy take off after Grog and Vex. Keyleth goes to say something but dismisses herself with a sigh, charging after them.

 

Pike goes to run, too, but Scanlan catches her waist and stops her. “Do you trust me?” he asks, and while something in her wants to tell him that  _ now is not the time for flirting _ , she finds that she does.

 

“Yes,” she says, and she knows to hold her breath for the next part. Scanlan’s voice sings out loud and clear, she feels a rush, and suddenly everyone but Grog is charging  _ at _ her. 

 

She looks to her left and finds they’re maybe 60 feet away from the hill giants. Looks back to her right and sees Scanlan wink at her.

 

“Thanks,” she breathes, pulling away from him. She watches Grog reach the first giant and cleave at it with a yell. 

 

“Anytime,” Scanlan says, eyes focusing behind her. He begins singing another song, clapping his hands to the beat. Pike turns her attention to them, too, starting to call her spiritual weapon.

 

While he sings, Vex catches up. Pike watches her move past the corner of her eye as she’s halfway through her spell. This time, she takes inspiration from the clubs the giants are carrying, manifesting a glimmering club that bashes into the giant farthest away from Grog. 

 

“Vex,” she calls out, preparing a guiding bolt. “Far left!” She points, and Sarenrae’s light collides with the giant’s chest, leaving a shimmering beacon for Vex. 

 

Vex, recognizing the spell, loses two arrows in the giant’s direction. Behind her, Pike hears two rapid gunshots and realizes that Percy’s also shot it. 

 

It staggers backwards, incredibly bloodied. Vex charges past them in a blur of black fabric and embeds one dagger in its chest, sending it collapsing onto the ground in a heap. 

 

Pike’s suddenly aware that Scanlan’s singing has moved from behind her, and she jerks her head to the side just in time to see him finish the song, one final note sending a burst of lightning blasting down the line of giants, just above Vax’s head and barely avoiding singeing Grog. 

 

Another giant falls to its knees as dark energy spreads across its chest. Pike looks back to see Keyleth pointing at it. The druid smiles awkwardly and keeps running to the side of the street.

 

With a shout of rage, Grog finishes off the giant he’d been fighting just after it clubs him in the side. Vax rolls out of the way of one’s club as two more of the giants rush forward, one heading towards Keyleth, who manages to run out of the way, and the other to Percy. Percy’s not so lucky, getting hit across the torso with the heavy wood of the club.

 

He’s hurled back towards Pike, who steadies him with a  _ Cure Wounds _ . She spins her spiritual weapon towards the one that hit Percy, striking it in a similar way that it struck him. Vex sends two arrows into its chest and that’s the end of that giant.

 

But there’s more-- always more-- because Percy’s taking shots into another’s chest as Grog spins towards it with his axe. They take that one down, which leaves one. Vax throws daggers and Scanlan summons a hand that punches it from behind and Keyleth sends a shard of ice through its chest and that’s the end of that one as well. 

 

It’s simple, really. Clockwork. Pike ducks around the rest of them to get some healing in on Grog before the frost giants reach them.

 

“We should really do this more often,” Keyleth pants from somewhere to Pike’s left.

 

“What, be amazing? I do that every day,” Scanlan says, his giant purple hand flying through the air towards the giants.

 

“You don’t think that we did, when we knew each other?” Percy calls, sliding bullets into the chamber of his gun and levelling it down the street towards the approaching giants. 

 

“Oh, I don’t know, fighting giants seems like such a simple task,” Vax grunts as he pulls his dagger from the chest of one of the giants. 

 

“I’ll bet we fought dragons,” Grog supplies, stepping to the front of them and holding his axe in two hands. The giants are getting close, now, maybe 80 feet away. 

 

“Dragons, Grog?” Pike asks, moving her spiritual weapon above them. “That seems like a bit much.”

 

“Dragons,” Grog says, a grin spreading across his face. 

 

The giants are 60 feet away. He charges.

 

It all happens at once-- Scanlan’s hand blasts into one alongside a dagger and Pike’s club. Another dagger joins two bullets and a pair of arrows in embedding themselves into a different giant’s chest. Keyleth raises a hand to the sky and a bolt of lightning blasts into the head of yet another at the same time Grog slashes across its chest three times with his axe and it falls, too.

 

It takes seconds for only one giant to be left standing. 

 

That, Pike realizes, is how well they work together when they’re prepared. She doesn’t think for long, as the last giant gets nearly obliterated by her club and Scanlan’s hand and Grog’s axe and bullets and arrows and a dagger and lightning all at once. 

 

The street clears, and Pike finds herself inspecting an empty battlefield this time.

 

Grog is laughing, a full-bellied laugh. “They barely scratched us!”

 

Percy straightens out his coat, rubbing a bit of dried blood from the side of his mouth. “Speak for yourself.”

 

Pike looks towards him. “Need more healing, Percy?” 

 

Percy waves her off. “I’m alright,” he says. “You had my back.”

 

Keyleth looks up the street. “Guys,” she says. 

 

“Our giant problem just got bigger,” Scanlan says, following her gaze. 

 

The twins are collecting arrows and daggers from giant corpses, but they both curse at the same time when they see another line of giants coming towards them.

  
“Those ones look different,” Pike says, holding her spiritual weapon instead of dispelling it like she’d been going to. 

 

“Storm giants,” Percy says. “I think. I’ve never seen one, only read about them.” 

 

Grog raises his axe. “Let’s kick their asses.”

 

Percy puts a hand out. “Grog,” he says. “As much as I’d like to, we can’t keep fighting them.”

 

Vax cleans his dagger on Vex’s shirt, earning a smack on the shoulder. “There’s an alley to our left,” he says. “Let’s go.”

 


	8. Chapter 8

They all charge together without question. Pike stumbles a bit as she tries to keep pace with Keyleth. 

  
“Scanlan, Pike,” Grog says, “heads up!” and then Pike finds herself running in midair. She relaxes a bit as he sets her on his shoulder, looking over his head to make eye contact with Scanlan. 

 

“Right!” Vax calls out, veering around a corner. 

 

Scanlan winks at her and sticks his tongue out and Pike can’t help but laugh a little. “Scanlan,” she says, voice just a bit scolding.

 

He beams. “Pike.”

 

“Time for that later,” Percy calls over his shoulder. 

 

“Always time, Percival,” Scanlan says, pulling his flute out. “Although I will say--” he lifts the flute to his lips. “My attention is needed elsewhere for a moment.”

 

Pike becomes aware of a clicking and scrabbling behind them, it clarifies to her at the same time she looks behind her. 

 

And at the same time Scanlan begins to play, flute carrying a light melody. 

 

“That’s a-- a scorpion,” she says. “A giant one. Guys!” she calls up ahead. 

 

They don’t stop running, but Percy and Keyleth both look back towards them. She hears a few curses from them. She taps Grog’s shoulder and they all run faster.

 

The scorpion, however, isn’t chasing them anymore. Because Scanlan’s song has stopped it in its tracks. 

 

Pike looks towards Scanlan. He winks again, the song continues, and when she looks back the scorpion waves to her with its tail. It turns and runs away as Pike turns around again.

 

“Nice one,” she says. 

 

“Darling,” Vex calls back. “Everything alright?”

 

“It is now,” Pike calls up. “Scorpion. Scanlan got it.”

 

“Nice one, Scanman,” Vax calls. 

 

“Like I said,” Scanlan says, putting his flute away again. “Anytime, baby.”

 

“Who are you calling baby?” Vax retorts.

 

“You, baby.” Scanlan says it with his ever-easy smile. Pike reaches over Grog’s head and rubs his shoulder. 

 

“Really,” Pike says. “Nice one.”

 

Scanlan’s smile deepens.

 

Grog looks up between them, best he can. “Could we save the flirtin’ for when you’re not on top of me?” he asks.

 

Pike pats his head. “We’re not flirting, Grog.”

 

“Aren’t we?” Scanlan asks. She shoots him a look.

 

They’re interrupted by Grog coming to a stop. Pike’s eyes snap forward to survey why they’ve stopped.

 

The first thing she realizes is giant wolves. Dire wolves.

 

The second thing she realizes is  _ lots  _ of them.

 

“Fifteen,” Percy says, his gun catching the light.

 

“Whoever’s throwing these things at us is getting more creative,” Vax says, daggers in hands. 

 

“More?” Percy asks. “I was thinking less.”

 

“Really?” Keyleth asks. “Dire wolves are dangerous in a pack.”

 

“Less,” Vex says. “Quantity over quality. Less creative.”

 

Grog sets Pike and Scanlan down. “Let’s get ‘em.”

 

* * *

 

Fourteen seconds.

 

Pike’s not counting, but she knows that’s the amount of time that passes between the first shot of Percy’s gun and when Keyleth, in the form of a giant tiger, sinks her teeth into the shoulder of the last one and it goes limp.

 

Or she guesses. 

 

Keyleth shifts back into her normal form, standing over the dire wolf. She smiles. 

 

“We did it!” she says, eyes bright.

 

Pike smiles back. She walks over to Vex, who’s pulling arrows from corpses. The ranger smiles gratefully as Pike puts a hand on her shoulder and gives her a bit of healing from Sarenrae’s light.

 

Their post-battle rhythm has become clear. She surveys the others, checking for wounds that need her attention. The twins retrieve their weapons, Percy reloads his gun, and they gather themselves to move on.

 

* * *

They get halfway down the street when the next problem becomes spilling around the corners and into the street in front of them.

 

“Zombies,  _ really?” _ Vex asks.

 

“More than fifteen,” Percy remarks dryly. 

 

“Still think quantity is uncreative?” Scanlan asks. 

 

Pike can feel Sarenrae with her. She smiles.

 

“Grog?”

 

“Hm?” Grog looks over.

 

“How far can you throw me?”

 

“Throw you?” Keyleth asks. “Pike, that’s…”

 

“How far?” Pike asks, looking up at Grog.

 

He beams. “Pretty far, buddy.”

 

“Great.” She lets him pick her up, clutching her symbol in one hand. She looks at the approaching zombies. “I can only get some of them,” she says. “You guys got the rest?” 

 

“Of course.” She’s not sure who answers, but it’s more than one of them, and she knows they all do.

 

Flying is a new sensation. She discovers that she quite enjoys it, as she goes hurtling through the air towards a crowd of zombies. 

 

_ Just like any other day _ , she thinks, as she impacts in the middle of a crowd that immediately turns on her. The impact hurts a bit, but she shrugs it off.

 

She bends in, clutching Sarenrae’s symbol, and then stands, throwing her arms out. Light spreads from her chest like a shockwave. Warmth, too, she feels Sarenrae’s presence in her heart. 

  
The blast clears a crater in the zombies, leaving only a few straggling along the edges. Pike doesn’t even have time to focus in on them, instead watching as her friends blast through them easily.

 

She straightens, runs a hand through her hair, and beams at them. “Zombies, easy,” she says.

 

Grog laughs, lifting her onto his shoulders. “That was amazin’!”   
  


Pike laughs too. Scanlan runs up, eyes bright. “You were beautiful,” he says. “Angelic.” He frowns a bit, and Pike hears him start another song, just singing a line. A little bit of warmth fills her, the same feeling that she gets when she heals someone.

 

“Thanks, Scanlan,” she says softly as Grog sets her down again.

 

Percy is loading his gun again. “There’ll be more,” he says. “Whoever’s controlling this is getting more desperate.”

 

Keyleth frowns at him. “Controlling this?”

 

Percy nods. “I think. It’s still just a theory, of course.”

 

“Care to explain, Percival?” Vax asks, kicking a corpse that doesn’t move anymore. 

 

“Our memories are altered. I’m assuming this isn’t the first time we’ve met, even after forgetting. The world is changing without a sound, and these monsters always know where to find us.” Percy looks down the street. “Someone has done this to us, it’s as simple as that.”

 

“That does make sense…” Vex says. “So that means…”

 

“As we get closer to getting out of here, it’s going to get harder,” Percy says. 

 

“Great,” Vax says. 

 

“My thought exactly,” Percy says. He gestures for them to follow him. “Save what you can,” he says, looking around at them. “Especially spells. Don’t hold back to the point where we’re in danger, but don’t be wasteful to show off.” The last bit is said with a look towards Scanlan, who grins. 

 

“I’ll do my best,” he says. “I don’t have much other than spells, but…”

 

“Me either,” Keyleth adds.

 

“Don’t hold back too much, of course,” Percy says, fixing his coat as they keep going. 

 

“Look sharp, everyone,” Vax says. “We’re still not alone.”

 

* * *

 

“Trolls,” Vex says, a note of disgust in her voice.

 

“Trolls,” Grog repeats, voice delighted as he slashes one last time into the now non-moving corpse of one of their attackers. “It’s like my birthday.”

 

“An army of assorted monsters attacking us throughout the day is like your birthday?” Keyleth asks, coughing a bit at the smell. 

 

Grog grins. “You know it.”

 

Scanlan kicks one of the troll corpses. “It’s certainly been interesting,” he says. 

 

Pike’s the one that sees the threat this time, except it doesn’t make sense to her how it’s a monster.    
  
Rather, it looks like a giant beast made out of plants and vines. “Next one,” she calls, inhaling sharply. 

 

Vex speaks up from somewhere over Pike’s left shoulder. “That’s a shambling mound,” she says. “Careful getting close to it, guys, it can pull you in.”

 

Keyleth cracks her knuckles. “I’ve got this one,” she says. A spell glows on her fingertips, all dark energy. “Blight is a  _ killer _ on plants.”

 

“And we’ve got your back, darling,” Vex says. 

 

Together, the nameless group of heroes that are known somewhere else as Vox Machina stand strong and face their next opponent.

 

* * *

Hotis’s companion smiles as Vox Machina blasts through the shambling mound. He laughs a bit, even, when Keyleth gets swallowed up by the mound despite weakening it terribly. She’s freed moments later when Grog’s axe cuts the mound’s head off and Vax cuts her free.

 

Hotis glares his way. “Something funny?” 

 

He shrugs. “Something’s always funny. They’re a funny group.” 

 

“You test my patience,” Hotis says.

 

“No one else would help you face Vox Machina,” his companion says. “It’s not like you have much of a choice aside from being patient with me.”

 

“And you’ll help me, when they get free.” Hotis curses himself for switching his thinking from  _ if _ to  _ when _ , but he knows it’s inevitable by now.

 

“Like I said, perhaps.”

 

“What do you mean, perhaps? Are you going to help them, instead?”

 

This earns a smile. “Perhaps.”

 

“Why, you--” 

 

His companion raises a hand to cut Hotis off. “I said I would help you,” he says. “But it’d be a shame if you were to be destroyed  _ before _ you could face Vox Machina, now wouldn’t it be?”

 

Hotis snarls. “Are you saying you’d fight me?”

 

“I’m asking if you want to find out.”

 

Hotis stares at him for a moment longer, all tension. His companion watches flatly. Eventually, Hotis sits back. “Just answer one question for me.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Well,” Keyleth says, pulling plant matter out of her hair. “Remind me never to get close to a plant monster.”

 

Vex struggles to pull an arrow out of a vine. “I  _ did _ warn you, darling.”

 

“She did,” Scanlan says with a grin. “We all heard her.”

 

Keyleth gives him a stink eye. “Thanks, Scanlan.”

 

“You alright, Kiki?” Vax asks, plucking a leaf from the side of her hair. They stare at each other for a long moment. 

 

Keyleth steps back first. “Yeah,” she says, voice raising half an octave. She laughs nervously. “Yeah I’m fine. We don’t need to waste spells or anything. We can keep moving.”

 

Pike looks her up and down. She doesn’t seem to be lying. She’ll just keep an extra eye on her in the next fight.

 

“And keep moving we should,” Percy says. “More’s coming our way.”

 

“What is it this time?” Vex asks. 

 

“Nothing good,” Percy replies. “How close are we?”

 

Vax points. The buildings that had been lining the street they were on end maybe fifty feet ahead, leaving only an open expanse of land. In the distance stands a single stone building, walls crumbling.

 

Pike rushes a bit down the street. “That’s it!” she says, pointing. “The keep I saw in my vision!

 

“Good,” Percy says. 

 

“Yeah,” Scanlan adds. “Because we’ve got company.

 

They turn their heads to see a three-headed beast charging towards them. 

 

They don’t wait around much longer, Grog scooping up Pike and Scanlan and the group of them charging towards the keep.

 

“What the  _ hell _ is that?!” Vax hisses. 

 

Percy looks more delighted than he should. “A chimera,” he says, glancing over his shoulder. “Never thought I’d see one.”

 

“You’re about to see one up close and personal if we don’t hurry.” Vex grabs his arm, pulling him with the rest of them.

 

Scanlan is looking over Grog’s shoulder. “It looks so happy to see us, though! Maybe it wants to have dinner with Percival and tell him its life story.

 

Pike stifles her laugh, Grog doesn’t stifle his. Percy gives Scanlan the finger over his shoulder. 

 

Vax reaches the gate first, cursing under his breath to find it down. He kicks at it a few times as Keyleth turns towards the wall and throws her hand out, the stone bending into a door for them. 

 

“Hurry,” she calls, rushing through. The others follow suit quickly, Keyleth turning the wall back into a wall just as the chimera runs face-first into it.

 

They don’t wait to hear it at the gate, rushing through the courtyard and only resting once they shut the front door of the keep behind them.

 

Standing in the foyer, they all take a moment to look around. 

 

“This feels…” Keyleth breathes.

 

“…familiar,” Percy confirms.

 

“Like somewhere we used to live, or-- or…” Vex has one hand gripping Trinket’s fur and the other holding tight to her brother.

 

Pike hops down off of Grog’s shoulder, using his arm to make sure she lands safely. “Like somewhere we knew in a dream,” she says.

 

The sound of a gun cocking makes Pike look towards Percy. He hears it too, but shakes his head. “We’re not alone,” he says quietly.

 

“What do you mean we’re not--” Scanlan gets halfway through his question before there’s the sound of a gunshot. Grog hears it too and ducks, a bullet impacting the wall just above Scanlan’s head. 

 

Percy’s gun is immediately pointed down the hallway, his eyes shining in the little light coming through the windows. “I don’t know who you are,” he says, cocking his gun. “But I do suggest you tell me where the hell you got that.”

 

* * *

 

Hotis’s companion leans back. “What question?”

 

Hotis glances towards the illusion, towards the tension building in it. “Why?” he asks. “Why did you take my job? Everyone else turned me down as soon as they heard the name  _ Vox Machina _ .”

 

His companion shifts. “Because,” he says. “I thought it would be interesting. Entertaining. Enjoyable, even.”

 

Hotis laughs a loud, barking laugh. “What, like a night at the theater?” 

 

This makes his companion grin, eyes flashing as he tips his head. “No,” he says, “I hate the theater.”

 

* * *

The person that steps into the light makes Keyleth gasp and Vex clasp a hand over her mouth. “Percival?” she asks, looking between the Percy at her side and the man standing across the foyer from them.

 

The Percy-not-Percy tips his head to the side. “Close,” he says, sending another bullet towards Vax, who’s ready for it, rolling out of the way.

 

Percy takes a deep breath and sends a bullet towards his double, who dodges out of the way. “Guys,” he says. “If there’s a me, there’s an us. Look out for Vax, he’s a sneaky one. No offense.” 

 

“None taken,” Vax says, standing up from where he’d rolled with a grunt. “I am quite sneaky. Behind you, Grog.”   
  
Grog kicks his foot back, impacting something. The groan sounds Vax-like. Pike looks over her shoulder to see that it  _ is _ Vax, two daggers in his hands.

 

“Fuck,” she says.

 

Grog sets Scanlan down. Pike draws her mace and sets it aglow, holding it forward. 

 

She sees them, now, and she knows the others do too. 

 

Not-Percy is standing in front of the open doors to a meeting room, Not-Grog by his side, and the glint of an arrow gives away Not-Vex’s location in a hallway next to him. 

 

Pike looks to her right and sees another one of herself standing in front of a set of double doors that she  _ knows _ are the ones she needs to enter the temple through. 

 

Her head turns left and focuses in on Not-Scanlan and Not-Keyleth in a hallway.

 

“Steady, everyone,” Percy calls, sending another bullet towards his double, over his shoulder. 

 

There’s a tension as their mirror images hold their positions, all watching them for any sign of movement. 

 

Keyleth laughs nervously. “This is…”

 

“Happening,” Percy says. “We’re all aware.” His eyes never leave his double. “What do you want?”  

 

Not-Percy tips his head to the side. “To stop you.”

 

“Well then,” Percy says. “It appears as though we have a problem. Guys?”

 

Pike can feel everyone tense around her. “The door,” she says. “Past me. That’s where we need to go, okay?”

 

She can see a few nods of confirmation, and then the room explodes into movement.

 

* * *

The fight goes like this: she sees Grog swing his axe back into Vax’s shoulder and for a moment she forgets which one’s the right one. She feels sick, but then she watches  _ her _ Vax slip around to stab the copy of himself in the side, and that’s even weirder. 

 

Percy’s shooting at Vex, and Vex is shooting at Percy. She shakes her head.  _ Her _ Percy’s shooting at Not-Vex and  _ her  _ Vex is loosing arrows at Not-Percy. 

 

“Gods is this weird,” her Scanlan says as he steps past her, echoing how she’s feeling. 

 

She wouldn’t know which Keyleth is which if she hadn’t seen Keyleth spring back into the form of her white tiger from earlier, rushing forward to tackle the other Keyleth- a giant wolf, reminiscent of the ones they fought.

 

She reaches over and grabs her Scanlan’s hand, hoping that at the very least them being grouped up will help this not feel so fucked up. 

 

“Remember guys,” she calls, tugging him towards the Not-her. “The door.”

 

“The door,” Percy confirms. A bullet flies towards Not-Scanlan. Another towards the other version of Percy. 

 

Pike can feel everyone starting to move behind her as she and Scanlan run across the foyer. 

 

The other version of her steps in front of them, mace at the ready. With a grin, she lights up her mace as well.

 

Pike raises her own mace. It makes her stomach twist less to face herself, for some reason.

 

Probably because it doesn’t feel like she’s fighting her friends.

 

Her new friends. Old friends? She's not sure anymore.

 

“It doesn’t really matter,” she whispers. She looks into her own eyes and sees anger. She clutches her mace tighter. “We need to get into that temple,” she says. 

 

The other her tips her head to the side. “We need to keep you out of that temple,” she says with a smile.

 

Pike hears Grog shout behind her and she has no idea which one it is. She grits her teeth and swings in for an attack.

 

* * *

 

“See  _ this _ ,” Hotis’s companion says, pointing to the illusion. “ _ This  _ is interesting.”

 

“Isn’t it?” Hotis says, grinning. 

 

His companion takes a few steps towards it. “You’d think,” he says, “having just met, putting them in a situation like this would mean they’d have trouble telling each other apart from the doubles. But none of them seem to be having any trouble. They haven’t attacked each other yet.”

 

Hotis crosses his arms. “Yet,” he says. “It won’t take long for one of them to slip up.”


	10. Chapter 10

Pike grunts as her double’s mace clips her shoulder. She swings back, almost missing.

 

She’s not quite sure why she didn’t expect them to be evenly matched. But as she barely dodges a swing of the mace at her head, she curses herself that she hadn’t expected it.

 

She sees out of the corner of her eye Scanlan, staring at the pair of them. She curses again realizing that he won’t be able to help because she and the other her look exactly the same.

 

It’s at the moment that this thought comes that she ducks away from a mace impact that never comes.

 

She straightens and sees the other Pike just standing there, staring at her, still as a statue.

 

Scanlan walks up, squinting towards the other her. “You can’t fool me,” he says. “I _know_ Pike Trickfoot’s beauty. And you don’t have it.”

 

Pike can’t help but laugh. “You met me yesterday.”

 

“We _danced_ together,” Scanlan says with a grin. “I’ll never forget it.”

 

“You’re even a smooth talker in the middle of battle,” Pike says. She steps around the other version of herself and pushes open the doors to a place she’s sure she’s only ever seen in a vision, but she feels like she’s crossed the threshold a thousand times.

 

Scanlan looks back over towards their fighting friends. “Guys!” he calls, and Pike doesn’t have time to dwell on feelings.

 

Percy had been right on their heels, the other she can still see in the doorway. He’s holding Vex’s hand, pulling her, with Trinket running behind, after him. A white tiger bounds past them and careens into some benches, leaving a wolf shaking itself to its feet behind her.

 

Pike breathes a sigh of relief as Percy pulls Vex through the door. She focuses in on the pair of Grogs who have ended up clashing in the middle of the room.

 

“Grog,” she calls, slamming her mace into the ground to get his attention.

 

One of the Grogs grunts angrily and disengages from the other. “Worst birthday ever,” he calls, dashing past her in large, bounding steps.

 

Vax appears from the shadows and rolls through the doors, and Pike and Scanlan quickly close them behind him.

 

Pike breathes a sigh of relief at the fact that they’ve all gotten through it without having to kill each other. Or, the anti-versions of themselves. Still…

 

Her sigh is cut short as she turns to see Percy holding his gun level at the center of Vax’s chest.

 

“Percy!” Vex half-screams, at the same time that Vax holds his hands in the air.

 

“Woah, Percival,” Vax says. “What are you doing?”

 

Percy’s eyes narrow at Vax. He doesn’t look at the rest of them. “Can any of you confirm this is our Vax?”

 

“Percy, you’re being ridiculous,” Keyleth says, no longer a tiger.

 

Percy’s gaze is cold and calculating. “I said,” he says. “Can any of you confirm that this is our Vax.”

 

“Percy, think about--” Vax begins, but he’s cut off by Percy talking over him.

 

“I haven’t let go of Vex’s hand, she can confirm that. Pike grabbed Scanlan before they even moved,” he says. “Which means our Scanlan is the one that watched the two Pike’s fight. And we know Scanlan wasn’t wrong about which is the right Pike because the other one didn’t have a holy symbol-- nice observation, by the way, Scanlan.”

 

Pike looks over at him, earning a grin. _That_ was how he had been able to tell.

 

Keyleth steps forward. “This is crazy, guys. You know that, right?”

 

Pike looks over at Scanlan and back at the others. She bites her lip. “Let him finish,” she says. “There’s nothing wrong with talking, and that’s all we’re doing right now, _right?_ ” she says pointedly, looking between Percy and Vax.

 

“Right,” Percy says. He points over his shoulder. “We all saw Keyleth change forms. Grog’s a harder one, but he made a comment based on our earlier conversation. And there’s also this. Grog, turn around.”

 

Grog frowns but turns around. Percy points with his free hand. “Vax wrote ‘kick me’ on his back in wyvern blood when we were trying to stealth around that manticore.”

 

Sure enough, the letters are there, dripping down his back.

 

Scanlan whistles. “Nice one, Vaxy.”

 

Grog glares towards Vax, who still has his palms raised towards Percy. “Why, you--”

 

“If you want to get revenge I’d suggest waiting until our Vax is really in the room,” Percy says.

 

Vex has one hand clapped over her mouth, but she lowers it and turns to Percy. “Percy I-- I trust you, but that’s my _brother_ you’re pointing that thing at. I can’t just-- what makes you think that that’s not… him.”

 

Percy nods. “I’ve been stalling,” he says. “Trying to think of a question that I could ask that could prove if that was Vax or not. Anything we’ve done and said, whoever’s controlling all of this would’ve heard.” He smiles. “I found one. Vex?”

 

Vex frowns. “Y--Yeah?”

 

“If he gives the wrong answer, I shoot him. If not, I’ll stand down.”

 

Vex grabs Trinket’s fur. “You’re sure about this?”

 

Percy nods.

 

Vex sighs. “Very well.”

 

Vax looks over at her. “ _Sister_.”

 

“If you’re really Vax, you have no reason to be afraid, right Percy?” Vex says.

 

Percy nods. “Right.”

 

Vax sighs. “Fine, then. What’s your question, Percy. Ask away, I’ll answer if it means we can get the _fuck_ out of this place.”

 

Percy smiles. “What’s my full name?”

 

* * *

 

Hotis’s companion smiles wide as he watches the scene inside the temple and on the other side of the doors, where Vax is avoiding a six on one fight by hiding in the shadows.

 

He wouldn’t have been able to hide if Hotis’s attention had not been fully focused on the Vax inside the temple.

 

“Now this is a pickle,” his companion says, the use of the nickname lost on Hotis.

 

Hotis leans back. “You act like I haven’t done my research,” he says. “Of course I know his full name.”

 

His companion gestures towards the illusion with a wide grin. “Then please, go ahead and prove me wrong.”

 

* * *

 

 

Vax watches Percy for a long moment. He nods. “Fine,” he says. “Your name is Lord Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel--”

 

Pike looks towards Percy, trying to read the way his eyes flash as Vax slowly says his name. She can see that they’re all watching for some sign.

 

He doesn’t give one, just waits for Vax to finish.

 

“--Klossowski de Rolo III.” Vax takes a step forward. “Aside from whatever was going on before all of this, I was your servant in the palace, there under cover from the Clasp.” He crosses his arms. “That good enough for you, Percival?”

 

His answer is the sound of two gunshots and the impact of one bullet in his shoulder. The other misses, as he ducks and rolls out of the way, flying past him and embedding itself in the door behind Pike and Scanlan.

 

Vex can’t contain the yelp she lets out when Percy shoots Vax, but they all realize immediately that he was right when the Vax in the room draws his daggers and Pike feels pressure on the door behind her.

 

“Percy?” Pike calls across the room.

 

Percy grins and sends two more bullets towards Vax. Again, he dodges one. “Let him in,” he says, a glint in his eye.

 

Pike lets the door give just enough for Vax to slip inside, daggers gleaming as he dashes across the room and knocks the other version of himself to the ground.

 

They scuffle for a while, none of the rest of them daring to interfere. Pike sees flashing daggers and a streak of red and then one of them clubs the other in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

 

Percy holds his gun towards the standing Vax. “Vax?”

 

Vax nods. “Thanks for figuring it out.”

 

Vex looks between them. “You’re sure this time, Percy?”

 

Percy nods. “This Vax hasn’t been shot,” he says. “Considering I just shot the imposter…”

 

Vax smiles, wiping his dagger on the other Vax’s cloak. “So,” he says. “How’d you figure it out?”


	11. Chapter 11

Hotis curses and punches at the illusion as though he could actually punch it.

 

His companion laughs. “Well,” he says. “They saw through that one.”

 

“Never mind it,” Hotis says. “Now that it’s come to this, let’s go.” He draws his dagger, heading towards the door.

 

His companion pulls his hood further down over his face and follows him to the door. “This should be fun.”

 

* * *

 

Percy smiles too, halfway through reloading his gun. “What’s my full name?”

 

“Oh, fuck off,” Vax says.

 

“That’s the Vax’ildan I know,” Percy replies, crossing the room and clapping him gently on the cheek. 

 

Vax slaps him back. He looks past Percy to Pike, eyes meeting hers. 

 

Quiet settles over the group of them as Pike walks forward towards the altar at the front of the room. Her breath hitches a bit as she looks around, taking in the sights of the cracked glass and slightly crumbling stone.

 

Pike focuses back in on the altar, on the beam of light shining down on it through a hole in the ceiling.

 

She takes a deep breath and waves them over. “Let’s--” she holds her hands out.

 

Grog grabs one. Keyleth grabs the other, earning a glare from Scanlan as he takes hers. 

 

They make a circle-- even Trinket is included, with one of Vex’s hands on his head and Scanlan reluctantly holding onto his shoulder.

 

Pike closes her eyes. “Okay,” she says quietly. “Give me a moment.”

 

She closes her eyes and begins to reach for Sarenrae, but she opens them again after a moment. “You know, whatever happens,” she says. “Whatever we remember, this has been…” She laughs softly. “I like you guys a lot, okay?”

 

Vax smiles at her from across the circle. “Truly,” he says, dipping his head dramatically. “It has been an honor fighting half the monsters in the world with all of you.”

 

“And ourselves,” Grog points out. 

 

“That too,” Vax says. 

 

Scanlan taps his foot. “So are we going to do this? Or am I just going to keep hugging this bear.” He glances over to Trinket. “Who I just love so much.”

 

Vex slaps the back of his head lightly. “Scanlan.”

 

He grins. “What? I love the bear.”

 

Pike smiles too. She closes her eyes again, focusing in on her holy symbol.

 

It takes a moment, but the warmth fills her again. It’s overflowing this time, she finds, standing in the middle of this temple. 

 

_ You did it, _ Pike hears. 

 

“I had help,” she whispers. 

 

If an internal and ambiguous presence could smile, Pike thinks Sarenrae would be smiling right now. 

 

* * *

 

The moment Hotis and his companion step into the room, Sarenrae’s light brightens in Pike’s hands.

 

Hotis glares at the beacon of light as he sheaths his dagger. He doesn’t dare move closer to the goddess’s light. 

 

His companion stays behind him as he slips through the doorway. Hotis skirts the light very carefully, positioning himself in a corner on top of a chair.

 

Hotis looks over at his companion, who is leaning against the door frame. “You’ll help me,” he says.

 

His companion just smiles.

 

* * *

 

Pike swallows and tightens her grip around Keyleth’s hand and Grog’s finger. “How do we get out,” she whispers.

 

_ I’ll help, _ Sarenrae tells her.  _ I’m going to tell you a name. Focus on it. Hold it tight. _

 

Pike nods. “Okay.”

 

_ One more thing _ , Sarenrae says.  _ There’s someone waiting for you out there. _

 

Pike takes a deep breath. “Okay,” she says again.

 

Sarenrae’s presence smiles.  _ I am with you, Pike. And, to all of you… be ready for a fight, Vox Machina. _

 

The name tugs at her heart and makes her feel like she’s lost her breath for a moment. She knows, without really  _ knowing _ , what the name is.

 

Pike opens her eyes. “We’re about to have company,” she says. She smiles. “Ready?”

 

She doesn’t have to look to know they are.

 

“Then let’s do this, Vox Machina.”

 

* * *

 

In the only inn in a small town, Vox Machina awaken after three days of curse-induced sleep. As the haze of the curse fades, Sarenrae’s light still shines, giving them enough time to scramble to their feet and turn to face their assailant in the doorway.

 

The hooded figure in the doorway points to his left, sending Vox Machina’s attention towards Hotis.

 

The rakshasa curses under his breath, hands spinning in beginning to cast a spell.

 

Scanlan narrows his eyes. “Oh, no you don’t,” he says, singing a loud note to counter the spell he’s working.

 

“You really should’ve given up the last time we killed you,” Vax says. 

 

Vox Machina descends on the corner of that room with a fury and power strong enough to take down a dragon.

 

Or worse, someone who split their family apart.

 

* * *

 

As Vox Machina bears down on Hotis, his companion slips out of the doorway and out of the inn. 

 

Artagan the archfey smiles to himself as he walks out of town, through a shimmering doorway, and disappears. 

 


	12. Chapter 12

“And good  _ fucking  _ riddance,” Vax says, kicking at the pile of robes and ash that was once Hotis.

 

Exhausted, Pike stumbles back a few steps. Grog catches her easily, scooping her up into his arms. “Hey there, buddy.”

 

“Grog,” she says with a grin. She takes a deep breath. “Who needs healing?” she calls.

 

Grog sets her down on the bed. Vax comes over and flicks her nose. “We’re all good,” he says. 

 

She swallows. “Good,” she says. “Good.”

 

Silence fills the room for only a moment. “We need to talk,” Keyleth says.

 

“We need to take a break,” Vex points out.

 

Percy nods. “We need to do both.”

 

Pike stands up, patting Grog’s arm as she does. “Scanlan?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Do you have a mansion in you now? I don’t think staying here would be…” Pike looks around and sees only understanding. 

 

It’s weird and perfect and exactly normal all at once, to be a family again. 

 

Scanlan flashes her one of his grins. “One step ahead of you.”

 

* * *

 

They’ve gathered every single blanket and pillow from their rooms. Scanlan pointed out that he could just summon pillows, but he was overruled by Keyleth and Vex, who said it would be more fun this way.

 

So they end up in a circle, eating chicken and drinking wine from the bottle.

 

They’ve been trading stories for a better part of an hour, going through piles of memories. They’d decided pretty quickly to figure out the details of whatever happened to them later, to try to track down Hotis’s hooded accomplice. 

 

So instead they’re relishing in memories of first meetings and awkward conversations that happened in another world.

 

Eventually, they run out of stories. Some of their laughter dies down.

 

Vex sighs heavily as she leans against Trinket. “It was all kind of fucked up, you know,” she says, swirling the liquid in a bottle of wine.

 

“What, trapping us in a dreamscape where we didn’t know each other, making us meet over and over and then fight our way to freedom?” Percy asks flatly.

 

Vex hums a note. “Making us forget,” she says.

 

Keyleth sighs. “I didn’t like not knowing you guys.”

 

“Everythin’ was really boring most of the time,” Grog adds.

 

Vax takes her bottle from her and sets it down in the middle of their circle with a finality. “Isn’t it funny, though?” he says, looking around. “All those times, we met and became friends. We figured it out. We still knew each other.”

 

Pike looks over and makes eye contact with him. She thinks back to the conversation they’d had when they were trying to escape, about being alone and being together. 

 

Somehow, she knows he’s thinking of it too.

 

Scanlan looks at him as well. “So what, you’re saying it’s fate?”

 

Vax shakes his head with a grin. “No,” he says. “It’s family.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me! This fic was really fun to write and I hope you enjoyed it. I'm nottsbuttons on tumblr if you want to find me there


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